And It Starts, Sometime Around Midnight
Sunday 11th June, 2023- 23:30
Sarah was in bed and despite the soul-massaging comfort it usually offers, she found no solace in her comfy kingdom. She glanced around her room, at the posters of various cute animals and metal bands which had nearly completely covered the wallpaper; which, to her, wasn’t a negative as she secretly thought it “sucked full ass” anyways.
She didn’t really sleep too well the previous few nights either, but she put that down to the traumas of fighting Kora-Hartinus and the Chosen. Even with the enhanced healing abilities they all seemingly inherited from Kalahoc, it still felt as if her mind was utterly weakened and drained.
She finally began to drift off and the cinema in her head played its vivid images.
The waking dreams she shared with the Lord of the Chosen had stayed with her and, even with his death, she hated how he had a hold on her. She heard his sinister laughter and the cruelty of his voice in dreams. When she fought him in her head, she saw into his memories, and they horrified her.
“So many dead” she thought to herself.
But it wasn’t just the horrors that swamped and invaded her mind. There was a sensation of butterflies fluttering, there was golden light in the cave. There was a figure standing, facing her. But, oddly, this time she didn’t feel frightened, she felt oddly comforted, she had a deep down feeling that she was safe with this person.
The figure seemed familiar, soon the light intensified, revealing James, dressed in the gym wear he wore almost 100% of the time. She had seen him wearing it a hundred times before, but something was different about him this time. She felt it in her heart the day before, outside the college after the battle, as if he and the whole world had changed and she was seeing the real version of him.
The vision of James looked confused initially- even if it didn’t take much to leave James befuddled- but soon became happy, smiling at her before fading. She reached out to him in vain. Dreamless sleep soon followed.
Meanwhile, nearby and at the same time, James’ eyes slammed open and he fumbled for his phone to look at the time. After a couple of botched efforts, he found his phone, pressed the lock screen button which cast a nearly-blinding light directly at his eyes. The clock read 00:00.
James put the phone down and rubbed his eyes. He tried to lay back down but something knocked at the door of his mind.
“Sarah?” James mumbled to himself. Something more physical began to call his attention. He looked under the blanket, saw what it was and quickly shot his head up. “Sarah!?” He asked himself once more, for more urgently this time. He shrugged and laid back down, falling to sleep moments after.
The next day, Lowtherton College, 09:00
The gang had finally been able to meet up again, as the college had been shut an extra week owing to the damage caused by the battle, which Caldwell and the army managed to pass off as “unexpected structural damage”. It was a miracle that the story got suppressed in the media.
James walked up to the doors of the college, Elliott walking alongside him. Elliott cast a strange glance.
James tried and failed for the fourth time to stifle a yawn.
“Dude, what’s with the yawning? You sound like a fog horn!” He asked, irritation evident.
James rubbed his eyes, yawned once more and replied:
“Sorry, broski, I had an odd dream last night.”
“Do tell.”
“I was in some cave somewhere, but it wasn’t scary at all though, it was quite nice. I saw this woman and I got closer and it was...”
Elliott interjected, greeting another one of the Shit List.
“Sarah!” James and Elliott exclaimed, the latter fortunately not noticing the oddly strangled tone of the former.
“Hey guys!” She replied excitedly, waving with glee. She gave Elliott a hearty hug, James received a more awkward and fumbled one, they quickly broke apart and avoided eye contact.
“Sup, bitches!” Called a voice behind them. It was Bobby, with Jas in tow.
“We can’t stay away from this shit heap, can we?” She asked with a grin a mile-wide.
“I know dude, I feel like such a goddamn nerd, no offense Jas.” James said.
“I’m a geek, actually!” Jas corrected.“Act-tually!” James repeated back in a mocking tone, winking at him to let him know that he wasn’t being cruel.
“You’re all geeks!” Taunted a sadly familiar voice.
Bobby glared at Danny, the kid who gave Elliott a hard time before. “Keep on walking you baby back bitch!”
Danny, surprisingly, offered no retort and indeed did carry on.
“Fuck that guy.” Sarah mumbled
A couple hours later, it was lunch. The Shit List sat outside on a patch of grass as the sun was beaming and warming, casting its golden glow on the group.
“Thank god for this, I am starving, I haven’t had anything today.” Sarah proclaimed. James looked at with alarm.
“Wait, you’ve had nothing? How are you not dead?” the shock trembling in his voice.
“I just don’t eat breakfast, do you guys?”
Much to James’ horror, the group were in agreement vis-a-vis, breakfast. He shook his head, gobsmacked at such an alien lifestyle.
“You guys disgust me, man.”
Sarah put on her best manly voice.
“Me James, me eat whole deer for breakfast.” this drew a loud collective laugh from the group, with even James grinning.
“Sorry, I care about my health.” he rebutted weakly.
“Out of curiosity, what have you eaten today?” Sarah asked with one eyebrow raised, a habit he used to find annoying, but seemed weirdly attractive of late. He tried to desperately suppress that feeling with a shake of his head.
Elliott not-so-subtly nudged James. “What was that dream you were on about earlier?” he whispered in a low voice, but not low enough to avoid Bobby’s near-superhuman hearing.
“You had a sex dream there, buddy?” Bobby asked with a mischievous grin on her face.
James sighed, looked down at the floor for a few seconds then replied. “Yeah, it was about your mom, Bobby.”
This drew boisterous laughter from the group, Bobby hit him playfully on the shoulder. “You know she’d throw your pasty ass straight in the bin, right?”
“Hey, so long as makes up some of that curry first, Ms McCloud can do whatever she wants.”
“Man, you’re nasty.” she tutted at him, with mock disapproval.
James looked at the path towards the college, and something caught his attention that nearly made his eyes pop out of his head, and his tongue roll out of his mouth, cartoon style.
“Holy shit, Bobby, you seeing that?” he pointed urgently into the distance. Bobby looked over, and her eyes nearly fell out of their sockets.
“God, damn!” she yelled. “How has Lauren Wollbaston gotten so much finer over the course of the break?”
“Look at those butt cheeks, dude, like two planets colliding!” James added in agreement.
Sarah and Elliott rolled their eyes at this whilst Jas sat and stoically read one of his comics. He had a massive collection, and was a self-confessed geek.
Sarah’s interest was piqued by the comic, she sidled over to Jas. “What you got there, bud?” She asked.
“Oh this? It’s one of the old runs of the Captain Whoosh comics, from 84-87, considered one of the best eras of the comic, its Golden Age, if you will. In fact, many fans...”
Sarah’s eyes glazed over as Jas’ roaring tide of comic knowledge washed over her. There was so much to remember.
James looked over and began to laugh to himself. Elliott looked at him, slightly puzzled, so James provided some clarification.
“It’s a golden rule, amigo. If you ever want Jas to start talking, you ask him about whatever comic he’s reading. It’s guaranteed that he’ll talk about it. Every. Damn. Time.”
James’ smile faded as he looked over at Sarah. I should probably stop staring, it’s getting creepy. James thought to himself.
As he was about to turn away, Sarah looked at him and gave him a wry little smile.
Hey Jamesy. She called out to him in her mind, which always startled him that she could do that, even though he knew it was her power. Can we talk later?
Errrmmm...yeah, sure. Sorry, I always forget you can do that. Hold up, you’re not reading my darkest thoughts or anything are you? Cause I know you’re more of a swamp witch now.
Of course not Jamesy, I’d never violate your trust like that, I care too much about you...At that moment James, rather bizarrely, could hear her inner voice stutter. You guys, I meant you guys.
I know, don’t sweat it.
She broke off the mind connection as Jas once again continued his comic-based assault on her senses.
Later that evening
James was back home, sat on his bed, scrolling mindlessly through his phone, laughing at the odd memes that he and Elliott sent each other through Instagram.
He did this mainly as a form of procrastination, his college work calling to him, the guilt crushing him like Atlas under the weight of the world. Reluctantly, and with much mental effort, he finally turned on his laptop and went about starting his work.
About twenty minutes in, he heard his mom yell for him.
He ran down the stairs, no-one was there. So he went to the living room, and saw his mom sat on the settee.
“You’ve got a visitor.” his mom announced, and he looked to the other settee, and there she was.
Sarah
James blinked, his head slightly rattled.
“Hey Jamesy.” she gave him a little sheepish smile.
“Hey hey.” he replied, unusually nervous around her, he managed to regain his composure. “How’s it hanging, swamp witch?”
Come on man, it’s Sarah, we’ve been cool since, like, forever, what are you playing at brain?
It’s not me that’s playing, it’s your heart, boy! His conscience retorted. I think you know why.
He didn’t realise that he was just staring at her, until his mom chastised him.
“Are you just gonna stand there or are you gonna sit down?” she turned to Sarah, her voice becoming far gentler.
“Sorry about my son, he’s great, a bit odd though.” Sarah couldn’t help but nod and giggle at that, much to James’ chagrin.
“That he is, he’s not too bad though.” she beamed at James as he sat down next to her.
James’ mom got up. “Anyone want a cuppa? Something to eat?”
Sarah politely declined whilst James asked for a tea, milk and no sugar. His addiction to tea always amused Sarah and she would often tease him about it.
She always thought of James as brash, confident to the point of arrogance and super-extroverted. But that day, after the battle, it was as if it was the first time that she truly looked at him, not the way that he presented himself, but as the way he really was.
And what she saw caused the long-sleeping butterflies to stir and flutter. They were both aware of just how close they were to each other. She could feel and hear the hum in the air, the current of electricity between them, as if the slightest touch would cause sparks to whizz and zip and zoom across the air.
James looked at her and tried to read her expression. He looked down and saw how close they were.
“Do you want me to move over there? I’m all up in your grill.” he asked breathlessly.
“No!” she responded with much more force than she realised. She became reddened with embarrassment. “I mean, because, ermm, your mom might want to sit there.”
“Oh no, it’s ok, she usually sits in the kitchen, she doesn’t like smoking in the lounge. Besides, I think she wants to watch her Korean dramas in peace.” This was very much accurate, on the rare occasions their paths crossed, she was almost always engrossed in an out-of-this-world drama show on her tablet.
“Do you want me to move?” he asked, with a tenderness that made her stomach flutter even more.
She shook her head and realised she was blushing. Do I tell him about the dream? Does he already know? I want to read his thoughts but I can’t, I dare not cross that line.
The butterflies in her stomach were fluttering more and more, creating a tornado in her stomach. The words she wanted to say, the feelings she wanted to pour out into the world, was like water attacking an ever-weakening dam. She wanted to tell him everything, but she knew it wasn’t fair on him. In the end, the tornado seized, replaced by an empty sadness.
“Sorry if I interrupted you tonight, James.” Her words were almost a sigh.
He laughed warmly, reassuring her. “Nah, in all honesty I really didn’t have the inclination to do anything anyways. Truth be told, I spent most of this evening swapping stupid memes and jokes with Elliott. He really does have the strangest humour, and he always mentions the most obscure things. I love the guy, but even I get puzzled by what he says.”
“Got any nice ones to show me?” she asked.
James grinned in response. “Oh, hell yeah, I never thought you’d ask.”
He pulled out his phone and bought up the Instagram messages between him and Elliott. He showed her various memes of animals perpetrating varying degrees of hijinks or mischief. They both laughed heartily at one video of a raccoon playing with a balloon.
To her horror, she realised that she had leaned her head on James’ shoulder. She didn’t mean to do it, but, she justified it by pretending to herself that she had to get a better view.
James didn’t notice, or at least, took pity on her by pretending not to notice. She quickly moved her head away and slinked back to the edge of the settee. She could’ve misread the signs, but she swore she saw a sadness in his eyes when she moved.
“You know you could’ve kept your head there, right?” he suggested with one eyebrow raised briefly.
Her heart was pounding outside of her chest. She swore that the whole world could hear it. She moved closer to him.
“Besides, I got these memes to show you.” She rested her head once more on his shoulder as he began to show more funny things Elliott had sent.
James’ arm decided to operate all by itself, and his arm moved to wrap gently around her shoulder. He pulled her gently closer. The hum of electricity between them intensified, the sparks zipped and zinged. The world around them held its breath.
He looked at her, staring into the emeralds of her eyes. He was lost in them, an orchestra played the symphony of his feelings, the music growing louder and louder, reaching a crescendo as he leaned in towards her and she leaned in towards him.
The music abruptly stopped as James’ mom, unintentionally, picked the absolute worst time to come back into the lounge, with James’ tea in hand.
James practically launched himself, as if he were a rocket, to the far side of the settee.
“Sorry about that, son! I got caught up in my drama, as you know!”
“Thanks mom.” he said, practically as a grumble.
