The Mystics Chapter 1

A Chapter by Hannah E. M.

She ran through the darkened house at full speed. It was nearly impossible to see more than a foot in front of her but she didn't dare let that slow her down. When she reached the back wall she placed her hands against it and shut her eyes until she felt it slide away, revealing a hidden staircase. Without hesitation she began to climb. She burst through the door at the top and saw... and saw...

"And saw what?" Reed muttered to himself. Groaning he flopped his aching head into his hands. He had finally gotten a good idea for the story and it slipped through his fingers.

He ripped the page out of his note book and threw it into his over flowing waste basket. His English teacher had assigned them to write a fiction story with a minimum of 10 pages. They still had a month to finish it but didn't even an idea of how to start, and he couldn't fail another class.

Ever since middle school he hadn't been able to hold onto a thought for more than a minute. When his teachers had started to complain that he was unfocused his mother had dragged him to a psychiatrist. They'd told her it was probably just a phase but when she insisted they do something about it they had prescribed him medication for some disorder. ACDC or something like that. His mother practically force fed him the pills, but he found ways to get out of it if he could.

He looked down at the page he'd been absent-mindedly drawing on. Staring back at him he saw the face that had haunted him since the last time he'd seen it. Even though the drawing didn't have any color he could see every detail; the shockingly blue eyes, pink lips, perfectly imperfect brown hair. It was Alexis Fabulis. She had been his best friend throughout the second half of middle school, and although they’d been practically inseparable they never became anything more than friends. It wasn’t because Reed didn’t want that though. He’d been planning on asking her out on her 14^th birthday when two days before she suddenly moved to Florida and out of his life without an explanation. In the couple of years since she'd been gone he'd had trouble getting her completely out of his mind, but she seemed to cross his mind even more so lately. He didn't think much of it though. Hundreds of thoughts ran through his head every day, few of which had much importance.

Yawning, he tucked the paper into his back pocket and collapsed into bed without bothering to change out of his street clothes. Before he got a chance to close his eyes he heard a pounding on his door.

"Wake up weed!" His older sister Natalie shouted, using her favorite nickname for him. He squinted at his phone to check the time. 7:00 am. He'd been up all night. He lay there for a minute considering the possibility of staying home sick, but he ruled it out and mustered up the energy to hop out of bed. After fixing himself up in the mirror he sniffed his shirt and winced in pain at the stench. He exchanged it for a plain blue tee but didn't bother switching out his baggy jeans. With one last glance at himself he headed out of his bedroom and down into the kitchen.

"Mornin'" Reed mumbled to his mom as he sat in front of a bowl of Fruit Loops already waiting for him.

His mom stood over him as she poured a glass of orange juice. She ran her fingers through his shaggy brown hair, pushing it out of his eyes. "When are you going to get your hair cut?"

"Mmsh," he forced out through a mouthful of cereal. His mom just sighed and walked away. He shook it back into place when she wasn't looking.

Natalie sat across from him and glared in his direction as he shoveled in another spoonful. "You're disgusting."

Reed swallowed before saying, "Not as gross as your bowl of wheat paste."

"It's healthy!"

He made gagging sounds as she took a bite of it.

"Natalie, what time's your first class today?" Their mom asked.

"12:30."

"Good, you can take Reed to school."

"What, why can't you?" She protested.

"I don't have time."

"What about dad?"

"He had the late shift last night. If you want to suffer the consequences of waking him up, be my guest."

"When are you going to let me drive myself?" Reed inquired.

"When you buy a car." His mom said matter-of-factly.

"Ugh fine, let's go weed." Natalie said as she got up.

Reed said good bye to his mom before jogging out to the car and hopping in the passenger’s side of Natalie’s orange VW bug. She cranked up the music and started singing along to her favorite boy band. Reed rolled his eyes and stared out the window at the passing houses.

They lived in Davenport, Iowa, a dull town on the edge of the Mississippi River. It was forever stuck in the awkward space between small town and large city. Their family had lived here for as long as anyone could remember. Reed had never been one to think much about the future, but he didn’t have to to know he wanted to get out of Iowa.

They pulled up in front of Central High School, where Reed gladly hopped out. He walked briskly away from the car never once looking up at the crowd of people as if the fact he couldn’t see them meant they couldn’t see him. He wasn’t exactly the most popular guy at school and if he was seen getting dropped off by his sister that wouldn’t help things.

He faltered a step when someone clipped his shoulder from behind. He looked up to see Tiffany Rhodes throwing him a disdainful look before flipping her hair and walking away with her “friends” of the week. She had golden blonde hair and a body that could make any guy drool. She was also a total b***h. Reed had asked her to the eighth grade dance back in middle school. She’d said yes at first only to back out two days later when her friends made it clear she wasn’t to be seen with a loser like him. He had shown her up though when he showed up at the dance with Alexis. They’d only gone together as friends but they played it up like a romance to prove his point to Tiffany. In the years since then Tiffany still went out of her way to make sure he knew she wasn’t interested in him, but instead it only proved the opposite to Reed.

Rolling his eyes, he jogged up the stairs to the old school building perched on top of the hill. As he walked across the small courtyard to the front doors he was grabbed by the arm and yanked him out of the traffic.

“What the heck?” Reed asked his best friend Alvin Schmidt as he regained his balance.

“You’ll never guess what I heard! Sara Parker’s throwing a party at her house this Friday! Half the school’s going to be there!”

“Yeah, she throws those like every week.”

“Really?” Alvin asked his brow furrowed. “I wonder why no one ever told me.”

“Yeah, I wonder,” Reed said empathetically clapping his hand on his shoulder and steering him into the school.

* * *

Reed sat absent-mindedly tapping his pencil against his desk as he and his 2^nd block math class waited for their teacher to arrive. He was in his own world until a conversation between students next to him snapped him out of it.

“Did you hear? Apparently there’s supposed to be some new chick starting here tomorrow.”

“Who?” One guy asked.

“I don’t know, but apparently she used to live here and she’s moving back.” This caused Reed’s curiosity in the matter to spike a little, but he quickly extinguished the thought when he considered the odds.

“I heard that too,” a third guy chimed in. “According to Jeremy she’s hot too.” This caused a slap to the back of the head from who was presumably the guy’s girlfriend.

The conversation died away after that when Ms. Tracy walked through the door. Reed struggled to pay attention as she droned on about the area of a circle but as his eyelids grew heavier he found it more and more difficult to keep from giving into the temptation that was sleep. When his eyes finally did close he found himself looking at who appeared to be Alexis, but she seemed different somehow. She stared at him with fearful eyes.

“Reed,” she whispered in a low, sultry voice. He tried to reach out to her, but she disappeared from under his fingertips and was replaced by a man with glowing skin. The man smiled at him for a moment before other images began to flash through Reed’s mind. He was able to make out some people he knew in them such as Alvin and even Tiffany at one point but they were mixed in with others who he had never seen before. Reed’s heart rate accelerated as the pictures sped through his thoughts. After what seemed like an eternity he awoke with a start to see the entire classroom staring his direction.

“Is something wrong, Mr. Flores?” Ms. Tracy asked.

“No, I was just… just…” Reed fumbled to come up with an explanation. Everyone watched him expectantly until Ms. Tracy determined he wasn’t going to finish his sentence and moved on. Reed slunk down in his seat, wishing he could just disappear. Not even a quarter of the way into the school year and he already couldn’t wait for it to be over.

* * *

“Quick drinks, then I want you back out on the field,” Coach Irish yelled to his exhausted football players. Reed half-heartedly jogged across the field to the bench where Alvin was filling up water bottles. He collapsed and put his head between his knees to keep from throwing up.

“Here you go man,” Alvin said as he passed him a cup. Without looking up he grabbed it and chugged its contents.

“Thanks,” he said between breaths.

“Irish is pretty brutal huh?”

“Ya think?”

“Hey water boy!” One of the brutes who played defense called to Alvin. “We need a refill!” Alvin sighed before trotting over to the hose.

Reed sat alone, boredly examining the dirt on his cleats when a pair of smaller feet appeared in between his. He slowly raised his gaze from her stone washed shorts, to her black tank top that came up to her stomach, to the designer sunglasses she was hiding behind.

“Can I help you?” He asked when she didn’t say anything.

“Are you Reed Flores?” She shot back almost instantly, practically cutting him off.

“Yeah..?” He replied hesitantly. As soon as he said that her face broke into a huge smile. She flung herself into his lap and wrapped him in a tight hug. “Um...” was the only response Reed was able to come up with.

“I’ve missed you so much!” She said. Another “Um…”

She released him slightly so she could look at him. Her smile disappeared when she saw the look of confusion on his face. She pushed her glasses up off her faces as if to get a better look. “You remember me don’t you?”

As soon as Reed looked into her eyes it was like time paused. His heart skipped a beat as he stared into the bright blue eyes that had haunted him and the girl from his drawings and visions molded into the girl perched on his lap.

“Alexis…” he forced out despite his lack of breath. He sat there for a moment trying to wrap his head around it.

A loud “Ahem” broke the silence. Reed didn’t hear it. He was too busy looking Alexis up and down. She looked hardly anything like the shy girl she’d left as.

“Ahem.” This time it was louder and succeeded in getting Reed’s attention. He looked away from her to see Alvin who seemed to have been standing there for a while.

“Care to introduce me?” Alvin said.

“Oh, um… Alexis this is my friend Alvin. Alvin this is Alexis, she’s… um…”

“I’m an old friend of Reed’s,” Alexis provided. She extended her hand as Alvin sat down next to them, but was sure to keep one arm around Reed. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“The pleasure’s all mine,” Alvin replied, clearly trying to turn on some of the charm he was always bragging about.

As Reed’s brain began to work again he asked Alexis, “What are you doing here?”

“Well, that’s not exactly the warm welcome I was expecting.”

Reed’s eyes widen as he floundered for a way to recover. “No, no, that’s not what-“

Alexis laughed and cut him off. “Relax Reed; I’m just messing with you.”

“Oh,” he said, his cheeks burning.

“My family’s moved back in town, so I’m here to stay, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Oh, so will you be attending Central High School with us?” Alvin asked her.

“Yep, I start tomorrow.”

“That’s great, maybe we could give you a tour,” he offered.

“I might have to take you up on that.”

Their conversation was cut short by the sound of Coach Irish’s whistle.

“I guess I should be going. But first, Reed, here’s my number,” she said as she scribbled the digits on his arm in sharpie. “See you guys tomorrow.” She waved goodbye as she pranced off. Reed watched her go until she was just a speck in the distance, a memory he would have a hard time forgetting.

next chapter

© 2013 Hannah E. M.

Author's Note

Please give me all your thoughts, don't hold back!

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Silent Wolf

OH MY GAWD! AMAZING! By the way, I love Alexis, not only because it's my name (Alexys) but because she seems like such a nice, open girl! And Reed is just awesome as well. CAN'T WAIT TO READ MORE!