I feel the weight of gravity leave my body as I try not to let go of the handlebars of my ATV below me as it leaves the ramp below me. Now, it's only a small jump, but it almost feels as if I'm flying. I honestly wonder what it's like to fly. The rear wheels of my ATV hitting the ground jar my mind back to reality. I almost jerk my handlebars left as the upcoming turn came faster than expected, temporarily sliding out of control. Adrenaline rushes my body as I swing the handlebars the other way, straightening myself out on the track. Oh boy, that was a close one.
"Alright," I say to myself, reassuring myself while slightly shifting my grip on my handlebars, I manage to reposition myself as much as I can on the seat and get back on the throttle, catching up to the racer in third. On the upcoming turn, I go for the inside, but I'm cut off and forced to the outside, allowing fifth to approach me. I cross the finish on the checkered flag and release the throttle, continuing straight instead of turning, riding under the bleachers and slowly make my way back to Carla's trailer, driving it up. Once I have the ATV off, I hop off and slip the helmet off my head, tucking it under my arm. I hop down from the trailer as the ATV's latched down. Carla walks up to me and wraps me in a hug. I try to hug her back, my riding gear making it awkward to hug.
"Good run, Shawn," Carla says from my shoulder. I break the hug and reposition my helmet under my arm. I smile at the compliment quickly and head to my dad's truck, tossing my helmet in the back. Struggling to get my chest protection off, I feel a pair of hands unlatch it and slip it over my head, tossing it in the truck on top of my helmet. Turning around to see who my helper is, I'm once again met with the face of Carla. I smile lightly at the familiar face, chuckling in slight embarrassment.
"Thanks," I say. Carla just shrugs lightly before my mom walks up to us.
"Come on. Let's get you all home," Mom says. Both Carla and I look at Mom before giving a light shrug and climb in the truck before we head off home. Reaching the house, we see a few men dressed up in suits waiting at the door. Worry fills me as I look at Mom, seeing she has the same worry. I've heard about this happening before, I think. We all get out of the truck and walk up to our house to meet the men.
"Hello? Are you May Johl?" One man says, stepping forewords. I take a nervous step back as the man steps forewords.
"Yes," Mom says. I'm getting a bad feeling about these people, seeing their actions and reactions.
"I regret to say this, but John Johl has been suspected KIA," the man says. Mom's face drops as he says that, but it takes me a second to register what was said. KIA, isn't that, oh no. Dad's been killed in action. I feel a tear threatening to fall. This can't be possible. He was the most aware and accurate person.
"No," I hear Mom whisper. I move behind Mom a little, still not really believing what's happening. I zone out temporarily until the men leaving snap me back to reality. I hurry in the house and jog up the stairs to my room. Perhaps reading a few stories on Wattpad would cheer me up. After a while, I shut my computer down, tired. After making sure it's shut down, I head over to my bed and lie down.
[1 year later]
Waking up, I'm no longer in my bed, but rather, in a field of what looks like elephant grass. I carefully get up, as I heard this stuff can hurt, badly. It's either this, or something else I'm thinking of. Standing up fully, I still can't see above the grass. Come to think of it, I'm not that tall myself. That's quite odd. I jump up to see if I can't get a look at where I am, and subconsciously note that I can jump quite high. Out of the elephant grass, I see nothing but a vast, sparkling blue sea ahead, a few soft, white clouds turning pinkish orange in a sunset. Turning around, I jump again and see a small village, looking to seem as if it would fit inside a fantasy novel, a tall stone pillar behind it all. And, when I say tall, I mean tall. Intrigued, I begin my walk through the tall grass, jumping over it every so often to keep in check that I'm still heading the right way. I stop jumping as I near the edge of the grass, but instead of emerging at the edge of the village, I emerge into the darkness of a cave, but notice that it's actually kind of bright for a cave.
Where am I? I say out loud to myself, hearing my voice echo in the cave. I freeze as I realize that my voice doesn't sound like words, but more like a growl. What is this? I've got to be dreaming. Stuff like this only happens in dreams and other places like that. Using the surprising light that lights the cave, although it looks as if there's nothing to light the cave this well, I continue forewords into the cave, or out of it, it's hard to tell which way I'm going. I keep a steady gait until I see something, like a white dot. Keeping an eye on that dot, I continue and realize it's a star, as I'm seeing more. I pick up my pace as soon as I see them, and realize that it's an exit. Reaching the edge of the cave, I look and see the moon in the sky, a beautiful rainbow ring surrounding the moon. Wow, that's quite pretty. I don't even realize that I'm walking forewords until it's too late and I'm falling down the side of a cliff.
I wake with a jolt as I hit the ground, sitting up immediately. Thinking that it was all a dream, I slide my feet off the edge of my bed and go to push myself off of my bed, until a pain in my left arm stops me. Grabbing my arm out of natural reaction, I roll my shirt sleeve up, I see a large, slightly welted bruise right below my shoulder. How'd that get there? It wasn't there before? My mind drifts to my recent dream as I realize I fell on my left side in my dream. Was it a dream? Don't be ridiculous, Shawn, stuff like that happens only in dreams. I rub my arm before getting up and getting everything ready for school today. After a few minutes of waiting, I get on the bus and sit beside Carla in the seat she's sitting in.
"Well, hi there," Carla says with a smile, looking at me. I set my bag under the seat, sticking my foot in the shoulder strap before taking my seat fully. I give Carla a hug, being thrown off balance a bit as the bus takes off.
"Morning," I say as Carla breaks the hug. We both sit silently for a little bit as the bus continues to pick up students.
"You ready for the trip today?" Carla says. Trip? Oh, the trip to C-Tec! I forgot about that!
"I actually forgot about it," I say. What? I really did. Carla laughs lightly for some reason.
"What's so funny?" I say. Carla shrugs and stays quiet until we get to Lawler High, which is my school, if you couldn't tell. We get off the bus and go through the majority of the day, which I don't feel like explaining because let's face it, it's just your average day, until it's time to leave for the trip. Entering the gym, I'm directed by a teacher to the group that I will be taking a bus with, and see Carla in that group! I wave to Carla as I walk towards the group.
"Hey. Fancy seeing you in this group," I say. Carla gives a light chuckle before quickly hugging me. Boarding the bus, Carla and I take our seat beside each other for the trip. Upon arrival, we part ways and go through the first part of the day. Reaching the middle of the dully boring day, we reach the cafeteria for lunch, and I made the slight mistake of forgetting my lunch at home, so I'm forced to get a lunch. Walking through the lunch line, I see a fairly familiar face, yet I don't really know how.
"What'll it be?" He says. I choose the lunch I want out of what they have available, and the person, Kaz, as I think I saw on his tag, goes back. Not even about a minute later, there's a little bit of commotion. What's going on back there? Soon, another person comes out and hands me my lunch. Wonder what happened to that Kaz person? I shrug it off and head out to sit down by Carla.
[Kaz's POV]
I head back into the kitchen and see that things are already ready. It never ceases to surprise me how quickly things can be done back here. Suddenly feeling light-headed, I place my hand down on a counter to steady myself, not knowing I've just placed my hand on a knife left out. Once the feeling goes away, I grab the tray and begin to head back to that kid, until the feeling returns. Now? Not now. Setting the tray down, I walk to a friend of mine.
"Hey. I gotta go. I'll be back soon, though. Could you take that out?" I say, pointing to the tray. He looks at the tray for a second before smiling lightly, nodding.
"Sure thing, Kaz. Just be back soon," He says. I nod thanks and head away to the one open place in the building that's empty, backstage of the auditorium. Hurrying there, I feel a burning pain slowly erupt as I reach the backstage.
[Shawn's POV]
"Hey, Shawn," Carla says as I walk up to her table. I give a quick smile as I take a seat beside Carla.
"Hey," I say. We're silent for the most part as we eat. Aside from a bit of small chat, and shadowing some other classes, there's not much to say about the day. I do feel kinda weird after lunch, though, and it must have been showing on the bus ride back to the school.
"Hey. You feeling alright?" Carla says, worried.
"I don't know," I say, pinching the bridge of my nose. I'm trying to keep my breathing slow and steady, in case this is another anxiety attack, which, I'll be honest, doesn't feel like one. I can feel my hand starting to shake as a vile feeling wells up in my stomach. Luckily, I'm able to keep it subdued until we arrive at school, not bothering to grab anything and just heading off the bus, I immediately head to the restrooms, as that same feeling is starting to rise to my throat. I barely make it to a bathroom stall before my stomach tells me what it thought of that lunch, up through my throat in a burning, itching sickness. After a few seconds, the feeling subsides, and I'm able to calm down slightly, my body still trembling over my recent surprise.
"Shawn? You alright?" I hear Carla say from outside the restroom. Once I've calmed my nerves and stopped shaking, I carefully make my way to the entrance of the restroom, ready to run back in case the feeling wells up again. I'm able to make my way into Carla's sight. "Shawn! You alright? You look horrible!" Carla says. Look? I feel horrible. I lightly scoff at her remark.
"Look? I feel horrible," I manage to say. I pinch the bridge of my nose and exhale as my throat tightens momentarily. I can see Carla has a genuine look of worry out of the corner of my eye. Leaning my head back, I rest it on the wall behind me as my throat and stomach calms down a bit. Carla sets a hand on my shoulder gently. I flinch lightly, but soon calm at her touch.
"Well, the day's almost over," Carla says. I sigh lightly at that line. At least I won't be here for much longer. What was in that food? "Come on. Let's try to get back to our class," Carla says. I nod lightly and push myself off the wall. "You left these on the bus," Carla says, handing me my stuff. I give a light smile as I take everything and we both start off for our last period classes, but it's hardly five steps as the bell rings, surprisingly scaring the crap out of me. I jump out of Carla's gentle grasp at the sound before realizing that I need to go. Without warning, I take off towards the front doors, knowing Carla will follow close behind. Exiting the front doors, it doesn't take long before I see our truck sitting in the school parking lot. We head to the truck and I climb into the back seat instead of taking the front.
"How was school?" Mom says as I open the door. Mom looks at me as I silently enter the truck. "You alright, Shawn? You don't look so well," Mom says. I remain silent as I lie down in the seats.
"He got sick after the trip today," Carla says, taking the shotgun seat. Mom seems rather surprised, and I was too. I usually have a good immune system, but today, something must have hit me hard. Mom and Carla start talking about something as Mom starts to drive us to our homes, but I don't catch what they're talking about, as I'm dozing off. Waking up, the first thing I notice is that my stomach has calmed down quite a noticeable bit. The second is that we're pulling up to my house. Slowly sitting up, I see Carla's still in the front seat. I decide to shrug it off and get out of the truck.
"How you feeling, Shawn?" Mom says as I step out of the truck. How am I feeling?
"I'm doing alright," I say. Well, I'm not lying. To my surprise, neither Mom, nor Carla say much else as we walk inside, despite the slight pain that is faintly erupting along my spine. I head upstairs into my room and shut the door as I notice the pain slowly spreading to my arms, legs, and neck, but it's more focused at my shoulder blades and tailbone. It hurts, but not unbearable, as it subsides rather quickly. Not long after my pain subsides, Carla slowly opens the door.
"Shawn?" Carla asks. Well, I figured it'd be alright for her to come in, as I'm feeling rather better, almost back to my old self.
"It's alright," I say. Carla enters the room and sits on my bed beside me, resting her arm on my shoulder. I smile lightly and lean into her side, a little scared after what happened. Carla suddenly checks her phone before getting up.
"Sorry, Shawn, but I've got to go. Dad's wondering where I'm at. He wants me home," Carla says. I simply nod lightly. What? Can't go against her dad.
"Alright. I'll see you another time," I say. Carla wraps her arms around me in a hug.
"See you tomorrow," Carla says as I quickly hug her back. We break the hug and Carla heads out, leaving me in my room. I decide to stay up a little bit later than I usually stay up, but it isn't until I'm about to hit the hay that I notice a weird, almost pinching itch on my back, around my shoulder blades, almost as if my skin is, like, spreading. That's weird. I've never felt this before. I subconsciously bring a hand to my back and give my shoulder blades a little itch. Once they feel satisfied, I fully lay down, not covering up, as my room's heating up again. I have a little trouble falling asleep due to the rising heat in my room, which is surprisingly warm. Okay, is it me, or is my room getting warmer than usual? Tossing and turning, I find myself stripped down to a pair of shorts before I hit my comfortable temperature again. I fall asleep fairly quickly, the itch returning, but I'm too tired to satisfy it. I fall asleep as that itch slowly fades with a slight burn. I can only hope it's gone by tomorrow.