Chapter Two

"James you awake yet? Sweetie, you better hurry it up, you’re going to be late for school."

"What?" Sleep, still in his voice as he swallows, deeply.

He peaks to see that she has already disappeared from the doorway. He then turns to his clock radio. The hour is seven forty two and the image from his dream is slowly fading.

"Hey James? What happened to you? You look like shit." A quick and decisive laugh briefly follows. A hand strikes his right shoulder as Benny catches up and greets him. The pain is minimal but James still manages to cringe at the mere contact.

"Ready for the big test?"

"Oh shit!" James slaps his forehead at the reminder of today's math exam. "I totally forgot."

"What's the problem? You're a whiz." He says, as he ducks through a classroom door.

James surges through the wave of students who make for the classroom, and heads for his seat. "That's not the point. I'm only a whiz when I study."

"Yeah, right." Benny and Jennifer, who has approached from the side, say in unison. She sits at the front of the class. James takes the desk behind her and shoves his books under his seat. Jennifer, now turning to face him takes a sweeping, panoramic look at Ben. "Man! You look like shit."

"That's what I told him." Intrudes Benny. She flashes a brief, poisonous glare in his direction then returns her attention to James.

"I'm okay. I'm just a little put-off. I forgot the test. Man!" His finish was self-abusive. They sit, one looking at the other. She scans his eyes for something, as he tries to avoid displaying fear. The glare of the light off her glasses distracts his view and she shies away. Benny allows a brief laugh to escape as the Professor enters the classroom and the class turns to stillness.

"Good morning." He says as he places a brown leather briefcase onto his desk and opens it. From it, he draws a stack of papers and hands them to the nearest students at the front of the class. As they are passing the pages, he turns to the blackboard and commences to write out instructions and a few answers to unknown questions.

Upon receiving the pages, the students begin to work out the solutions. James stares at the first page absently, trying to conjure a memory of the material that was covered in the last three weeks of school. The exam concentrates primarily on Gradients and Differentiation's and the Applications of Differentiation's. Whatever that meant? He continues to look at the graph before him, only drawing a blank where the material should have made sense. He throws a confused look at Benny, who is working out a solution with great focus. Discouraged, James places his pencil before him and slouches in his seat. Now, with eyes closed, his hands make through his hair. He concentrates on finding that point of focus at the center of his mind.

"Why me?"

"One is not chosen because of why but because of what."

"What's that supposed to mean? What am I then?"

Silence.

"James? Is everything all right?" The professor's voice emerges through the darkness of his mind as he opens his eyes to see the probing face of Professor Dante.

"Yeah! I just didn't study last night. I had totally forgotten…" At which point Professor Dante interrupts.

"It looks like you had no problems with the exam, but the class is over. You may leave, just don't forget to get tonight's homework off another student."

Confused, James looks at the completed forms of the exam and begins to wonder how it was that he had answered all of the questions. "Okay..." He leaves it at that as he sees other students entering the classroom for the next tutorial.

"Hey! James!" Benny calls over the chorus of voices in the hallway. James can feel him approach from behind, and with Jenny at his side. He can hear him ask: How did you do? It's always the same... predictable Benny. "How did you do?" James lets out a quick laugh as he urges forward, trying to avoid his best friend's questions. What's wrong with you?

"Why me?" He screams, as he stops and turns to face Benny and Jennifer, his index finger at Benny's chest. They come to a complete halt and look at him questioningly. With that, he realizes his distress and signals them to stop and back off with the flat of his hand.

"What's wrong with you?" Benny calls out, as James fades into the ongoing crowd of students. He then turns to Jenny and shrugs his shoulders. They follow.

Silence... James seeks out the silence of the school's library.

He arrives, and passes through the magnetic detector, sending it into a mechanical frenzy. The buzz from the apparatus is deafening, as it charges him with a massive surge of static electricity. The detector's alarm sounds, as he completes his passage, its relentless cry calls for the attention of all who inhabit the room. James, reddening with embarrassment, ducks to hide into a shadowed corner.

The technician averts her attention to the student and wonders why the alarm had sounded upon his entrance and not upon exiting, especially when he carries no books. The alarm ceases to sound and order is again restored. She approaches James with curiosity and places a hand onto his left shoulder. At which she receives an electrifying shock, sending her back in surprise with a bellowed yelp.

He feels the sudden shock of the electrostatic surge that is exchanged between him and Miss Green. In a slower than life footage, he sees the plasma arch leap from her finger, onto his shoulder and burn a mesmerizing flash into his corneas. Stunned, he shakes his head to clear the image and turns to face the Library Technician, who slowly walks away in a bewildered trance. The silence of his mind is quickly filled with the low murmurs of the room, as her feet carry against the rug.

He crouches in his chair with arms crossed about his chest, attempting to conceal himself under the table. His legs elongate to the opposite side of the table as he takes a deep breath and holds it. His hair slowly returns to its original assembly and he exhales.

'So?'

'What?' She laughs.

'How was it?'

'It was so romantic... First, we went out for supper, he bought me flowers. Then we rented a few movies. His parents were gone for the weekend and so, we had the entire place to ourselves.' Another laugh. 'We started kissing on the couch and then, he started to touch me. I was getting really w...'

'What did you get on question three?'

'X equaled seven and Y equaled... negative three.'

'Shit! I didn't get that one.'

'Don't worry about it. Tom?'

'Yeah?'

'Did you get to...?'

'None of your business man.' He laughs, awkwardly.

"What's going on?" Benny's voice cracks through the flood of voices from within James head.

Startled, James sits upright and notices Benny and Jennifer standing at the opposite end of the table.

"I thought I asked you two to leave me alone?" Running his hands once through his hair with a deep breath. The intrusion of Benny's voice in his mindscape had left a decisive pain in his frontal lobes.

"What's up with you?" Jenny asks, as she inches nearer, seeking support from the tabletop.

"Yeah! You've been out of it since this morning. What's wrong?" Partially standing behind Jennifer's left shoulder. He reaches for the next chair.

"Nothing. Nothing's wrong. Okay? I just... Want to be alone?" One is not chosen because of why, but because of what. He stirs uncomfortably in his chair, as the memory plays in his head. What happens if I say no? Then we would cease to be. What did that mean? "I don't know! I think... I'll take the rest of the day off. I'm going home." He slowly rises from his chair.

"You look like you need it." Benny throws, as he hands James his books.

"Benny!" She says, exasperated. "Do you want me to drive you?" She asks, stepping nearer still, placing a hand on his shoulder. She looks at him with honest concern, but he declines.

"No. I think I'll walk... Thanks." He reaches for her hand and gives it a tender embrace and offers a meek half smile.

'That James is creepy.'

As he exits the school's library, the alarm sounds anew.

The day's heat is unbearable. The dry and searing warmth forms a thin, oily layer over the skin, as the brilliance scorches the flesh. If only there was a light breeze to ease his discomfort.

Each step is like a thunderous clasp, as his foot strikes the pavement and the ground shutters under its force. The shock waves, which extend to his ears, create a tremendous resonance, causing his head and inner ears to hurt, much like they did when he was a child. His thoughts never escape him and his every instinct has abandoned him. He is at a loss. That strange, old man… Everything seems to move in slow motion, as he tries to avoid the faces of the people in the oncoming traffic. It is as though they are noticing him above all else; the world around them exists no more, except that which contains him. He shakes his head to rid himself from his delusional paranoia and continues walking. Suddenly, a car slows as it approaches, and then stops slightly behind him. Fear tears through him, as bereavement becomes his stalker. He stops again and turns in defiance, only to find that the vehicle had stopped at a red light. He pauses and takes a deep breath to gather his thoughts. For the first time in his life, his thoughts have betrayed him and he questions his sanity. 'What's wrong with me?'

"You're home early. What's wrong?" Her smiling, yet concerned face appears from behind the kitchen's serving area. She was in the middle of unloading the day's grocery bags as she looks over, still with a can of tomato soup in hand. His schoolbooks fall onto the dinning room table with a detonating clap, sending loose pages to run affray. She liked to think of herself as an understanding parent, but James has been a little hard to handle these days. He approaches the counter and grabs one of the new apples, which had liberated itself from the confines of the plastic sack, and continues onward. She sets down the can of soup and pauses, but he says nothing, at first. As he passes through the kitchen's archway, he stops and says: "I don't know." His words come slowly, and long divided. He did not face her nor did he stop for long. He simply continues, up the stairs and disappears in the shadows of the upper floor. She knew he was serious by the controlled slam of his bedroom door.

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E.Nemesis

Alone at last, and defeated