Boring Normal Life

Rowan begins a new day at his school but things start to go from strange to stranger as he starts to turn into something more than human

Rowan was your typical 14 years old, he went to school and did fairly average in nearly every subject, he wasn't liked or hated by his peers. In all regards his life was normal, normal family, normal school life, normal everything, little did he know his carefree normal life was about to completely unravel.

We follow the life of middle schooler Rowan Kheel, a Canadian middle schooler who lived in Toronto, Ontario. He didn't mind his school life but he didn't love it either. He was an avid procrastinator which sometimes got him in trouble when it came to studying for tests and whatnot but he still managed to scrape by. It was almost a year since he had turned 13 and he still hadn't noticed a difference. He was kind of disappointed, everyone always talked about how being a teenager was supposed to be completely different but he didn't understand why? Rowan was walking to school as he felt the wind flow through his hair and the sky was a bright shade of blue, it seemed like it was about to be a boringly average day. He sighed as he entered the school building and his best friend Johnathan stepped up to greet him, Jonathan usually greeted him sometimes in the morning, he was here earlier than most because he liked to be early for some strange reason and Rowan couldn't relate to wanting to be at school more, he wanted to be there less.

"Hey Rowan, how's it going?"

Johnathan said this in an upbeat tone. Johnathan was a 15-year-old pumped up athletic type, he was fairly fit and had short brown hair with a singular azure blue streak running through it that matched his eyes, Rowan always thought that was odd because it just showed up one day, no explanation from Johnathan was given about it and he had never expressed interest in dying it, It also never seemed to wear out nor was any part of that streak ever the same color as his normal hair, Rowan thought that maybe Johnathan got some sort of surgery to keep his hair that color but why just for one part? However, he never mentioned it for fear of being rude to his only friend.

"It's been going the same as usual."

Rowan replied in his usual monotone voice, Rowan himself had black hair with brown eyes and was scrawny in comparison to Johnathan, Johnathan wore a blue tank top with blue shorts whereas Rowan wore a black hoodie and jeans to match most days not particularly wanting to draw attention from others, if you haven't guessed by now Rowan is a social outcast as well as an introvert whereas Johnathan is the complete opposite. Johnathan worried about Rowan and for good reason, low self-esteem and depression were two things that Rowan seemed to have. Rowan never truly looked or seemed happy as he was always bored with the world and was always blaming himself whenever Johnathan lost, "If you weren't hanging out with me maybe you would have gotten enough practice in to beat them." This was something Rowan commonly said and Johnathan tried his best to reassure Rowan that it was simply not the case but he never seemed convinced. Johnathan nodded at Rowan and continued the conversation.

"Are you coming to my basketball game tomorrow Rowan? We got a good shot at utterly destroying this team, their defense is totally weak."

"Of course, I wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Great, you just watch as I destroy the opposition!"

As Johnathan said this he made a punching motion with his fist and playfully hit Rowan who chuckled at Johnathan's rampant enthusiasm, Jonathan always got excited over such things like sport while Rowan was never one for all that stuff, he didn't have the build nor the mind for almost any sport at all. Rowan started to think about how good their basketball team was doing in the league ever since Johnathan joined, he was 6' and their star player, the only player on their team that actually was able to dunk mind you not only was it because of him being so tall but it was also because of his insanely high jump height as well. The kid was built like a tank and Rowan was kind of envious of his amazing build, Rowan was lanky and was quite weak physically

"I'm sure you will Johnathan, you always do, after all, you are their star player and they'd be lost without you."

And with that final note the bell rang and Jonathan gave Rowan a nod and a smile as he headed over to his classes, speaking of classes Rowan had the dreaded English class first up. That was his worst class, he did okay in all the classes except for English which was a real pain in the neck since he wanted to be a writer, being a writer was a dream job as he got to be away from other people and work at his own pace. He sighs as he sees his classmates brush by him, he didn't really fit in with the other guys his age because all they seemed to talk about was girls and sports exclusively, Rowan wasn't particularly interested in both those topics, it wasn't that he didn't feel attraction to females it was more he didn't like interacting with people and getting a girlfriend required unnecessary interaction.. As more and more people start to pass him by whilst heading to their classes he realizes that if he didn't start to head to class soon he would be considered late. He scrambles to grab his textbooks and other supplies necessary for English class and walks in. Everyone looks towards him as he enters but quickly they refocus on the teacher, she seemed to be going on about haikus or something similar. Rowan takes a seat and opens up his book as he starts to doodle in his notebook as he pretends to be listening. Time seems to fly by as he starts to write and finish assignments half-heartedly and soon enough the class is over.

He exits the classroom, to his classmates Rowan is practically invisible as they just brush by him without even a hint of acknowledgment. Rowan didn't particularly mind this treatment as he was fairly introverted and didn't like interacting socially with large groups. Rowan opens his locker and he notices something amiss, his locker is in disarray and a note is taped to the back of his locker which reads "BEWARE" in some red substance. Rowan jolts back, could it be blood? He shakes his head in a dismissible manner and chuckles, "this must be a prank, heh, they almost got me, I'm such an idiot." Rowan thinks to himself. He simply crumples up the paper and throws it into a nearby trash can. He chuckles as he collects his stuff and hurries along to his next class.

Rowan thought the note was a joke but that didn't help him from having the feeling like someone was watching him the entire day. He even felt like at one point he even felt like someone was breathing down his neck, how very peculiar. Rowan couldn't shake this feeling no matter what he tried, splashing water on his face, slapping himself. When he told Johnathan about it he seemed strange not really giving him his usual upbeat sayings or tone of voice and instead just walking which seemed to be the opposite direction of where his classes were located, this just kept getting stranger Rowan thought to himself. As he went to his next class he didn't pay attention yet again but this time he was lost in deep thought, what the hell was happening. The teacher called on him three times before he actually heard her and answered her question. He heard some snickers from his classmates but paid them no mind. He stumbled out of his classroom when it was finally over almost like his body was on autopilot. He was starting to get more and more unsure about the fact that the note might have been a joke.

In Rowan's haste, he makes an error, a system malfunction if you will. He bumps into the biggest bully in the school, John Cruise. John Cruise was the type of kid to stop others in the hallway simply for fun or to bring down their self-esteem, Rowan tried to avoid him by going alternate routes around the school but this time he had been hasty and forgotten. Not only does he make this mistake but he also makes the mistake of not realizing it until a couple of seconds afterward in which John already had grabbed Rowan's shirt and was suspending him in the air. Rowan was 5'7 however John was 6'2, even bigger than Rowan's best friend Johnathan. He felt John start to clench his shirt tightly and he could feel the anger radiating from John, damn this was so annoying.

"Hey, punk, what do you think you're doing walking into people without even apologizing to them."

As John says this he slams Rowan into the nearby lockers knocking the wind out of him as John holds him up against the lockers, suddenly Rowan starts to feel a burning pain in his left eye which spreads to his right. He was desperately trying to suck in air and the pain was definitely causing him unnecessary struggle. Usually, in these situations, your vision would be impaired but Rowan felt as if you could see more clearly, he grabbed John's hand and gripped hard pulling it off of him. He hears a snap and John lets out a grunt of pain before pulling his hand back rapidly and putting it in his pocket. Looking embarrassed and defeated, John walks off and Rowan's sight returns to normal "What the hell was that." Rowan says this out loud however the crowd that had gathered during the scuffle had already dispersed as the fight ended so no one heard it. Rowan stumbled to the washroom and looked at himself in the mirror, nothing seemed off about himself or his appearance so what the hell was with the ocular pain he felt earlier.

Then Rowan starts to feel something dripping down his face and onto the sink, Drip, Drip, Drip. He looks down hesitantly and he sees blood? He starts to breathe heavily and looks into the mirror and as he does he sees that his pupils had turned completely black but as he blinks his eyes they disappear. He starts to look around making sure no one was there as he started to clean up the blood. "What the hell, what the hell, what the hell." He finishes up and quickly returns to his class with post-haste.

The rest of the day flies by like a blur and Johnathan is nowhere to be seen, Rowan hopes that nothing bad happened to his friend and wishes that he could talk to him about what had happened. Eventually, it's finally time for school to end and Rowan goes back to his locker to pack his things and still no Johnathan, this was starting to get troubling as Johnathan always was there to say goodbye at the end of the day. Rowan started to walk home as he was lost in thought, various thoughts flew through his head

"Did I break his hand?"

"What the hell was that note?"

"Johnathan is never late to greet me."

"Why did I feel like I was being watched all day?"

"Who am I?"

Rowan shudders at the last thought, his entire body was trembling, this entire affair, this entire day, it's been completely strange and off. Rowan didn't feel as if this wasn't just something he could sleep off and be rid of the next morning, no something much more serious was happening and he wanted to get to the bottom of it. He pondered multiple ways to go about doing this, should he call the police? No, they might think he's crazy, some teen calling about their eyes hurting and then they get a sudden burst of strength and a feeling of extreme paranoia. They'd put me in a psych ward Rowan thought. He decided he would simply do his own research on what this could be, he would keep it hidden from everyone except for Jonathan who he would inform the next time he saw him. Then Rowan reached his home.

Suddenly as he's about to reach for his doorknob he feels the same feeling he felt earlier, that feeling like someone was breathing down your back. He jolts back, turning his head and seeing a shadowy figure at the edge of the forest near his property, the shadowy figure starts to get farther away as it descends into the forest behind it. Rowan books it running towards its location, he just kept running and running curious as to what this strange figure could possibly be. He seems to be more agile and can sense the environment around him as he runs through the shadowy forest, even though it was dark it seemed like he could see everything perfectly clear as if they were in a grassland on a hot summer's day. A bird flying overhead, a rabbit carefully situated below the trunk of a tree, even ants crawling out of a nearby anthill, he could see or rather sense them all. This was quite odd indeed. Eventually, he ran out of breath but he found that his stamina had increased as he ran long after what was previously his limit.

Sulky and defeated Rowan stumbled home defeated, he had hoped to get some answers when he caught the figure but it seemed he was having no such luck. As he reached his house he heard a familiar voice cry out, he looked around before realizing it was coming from inside the house. He busts open the door with amazing strength, almost making the door fly off its hinges and what he sees in front of him is quite the grizzly sight. Blood pooled across the floor by his feet, he could feel the soles of his shoes absorb the liquid as his feet felt damp with the blood of, who? Who did the blood belong to? This question horrified Rowan as he knew that the answer was most likely one he would not want to hear

He takes a couple more steps and sees the perpetrator, a man dressed in all black was holding the jewelry box of Rowan's mother in his hand and below him was an even more gruesome scene. The dead and dismembered bodies of Rowan's mother and father were lying on the kitchen floor, crimson blood flowing from their corpses like a river flowing from the ocean. The perpetrator looked over at Rowan and drew his knife that was drenched with the same crimson substance pooling out from Rowan's parents. Rowan wondered on that day that if there was a god then why did two righteous people such as his parents have to die, why did they have to suffer such injustice and pain, shouldn't such good people live good and happy lives? A tear rolled down Rowan's face and his pupils had transformed to the pitch-black state they were in earlier. A devilish smile across his face as the robber starts to feel bloodlust projected at him, the final thoughts going through the head of this murderer were

"Just who is this kid?"

And that's all that Rowan can remember, after that he blacked out. When Rowan awoke he was in a white room surrounded by almost nothingness, what the hell had happened? Wasn't he at his house? He tried to find an exit, he wandered for hours around the white voice, he was both thirsty and hungry, would he be in here forever? Would he die there? As these thoughts bubbled around in his mind similar to bubbles in a jacuzzi that had been freshly heated an odd presence was felt, not a presence of unease but simply an odd presence. As he turned his head around he saw what seemed like a doorway that had just appeared out of nowhere with a man standing inside of it with a smile on his face.

"Hello, Rowan."