The Mystics Chapter Three

Reed stared boredly out at the rain drizzling down the window as his science teacher droned on, trying to hold their attention for the last few minutes of the day and failing. The last couple days had come and gone rather calmly. Although the events on Alexis’s first day had earned her a place as a minor celebrity, it had soon passed as news of other events echoed throughout Central’s crowded halls.

      Reed’s attention slowly turned back to what was happening in the classroom as the end-of-the-day announcements came on over the intercom. The speaker in their classroom tended to go in and out, but he was able to catch them saying that football practice was canceled. He breathed a sigh of relief, for he really hadn’t felt like going.

      Once the final bell rang and the students flooded out of the classroom Reed headed to his locker. After dumping his books in it he shut the door to reveal Alexis leaning up against the locker adjacent to his.

      “Hey,” she said. “So I hear your Friday afternoon just cleared up. Do you and Alvin wanna catch a movie with Natalie and me?”

       “A movie sounds great, should we meet you there?”

      “Sure, how does 7 sound?”

      “Sounds great.”

      She smiled excitedly before saying goodbye and running off to her own locker.

* * *

      “Reed! You’ve been in there for 20 minutes, let me in!!”

      “Just a second!” He called back to Natalie. He ran his fingers through his hair once last time before her incessant pounding forced him to call it good.

      “Jeez, you got a date or something?” She asked when he finally came out.

      “No,” he snapped back defensively.

      She was taken aback by his quick response. “Alright, damn,” she said before mumbling under her breath, “Weirdo.”

      Reed jogged down the stairs, almost tripping over his own feet in his haste.

      His mother looked up from her magazine as he came stumbling into the living room.  “Wow, where are you going all dressed up like that?”

      Reed looked down at himself. He’d thrown on one of his nicer button-down shirts over his jeans. It wasn’t too dressy, but for him it was nice.

      “The movies,” he replied.

      “Oh, with who?”

      “Alvin.” It wasn’t a complete lie, he was going to be there.

      “You got spent all that time getting ready for Alvin?”

      Reed just shrugged, not sure how else to respond. Luckily he didn’t have for the sound of a car horn interrupted them. Reed looked out to see Mrs. Schmidt’s car waiting in front of their house.

      “That’s him, bye Mom,” he said as he ran out the door, not giving her a chance to ask any more questions.

* * *

      After an uncomfortable car ride, some arguing (Christina and Alvin), and pushing past all of the tweens there to see the new Kristen Stuart movie Reed somehow found himself in between Christina and Alvin watching the latest romantic comedy. Though he didn’t really remember falling asleep he started dreaming sometime in between the lead character realizing he had feelings for his fiancée’s best friend and Alvin getting slapped for trying the fake yawn move on Alexis (He would get slapped for it again later, only this time by Reed.)

      It was one of those first person dreams. He found himself standing in the middle of a crowded room. Everyone, including himself, was dressed in formal attire. It looked like a party, a ball maybe. It seemed like a normal scene, until he looked more closely at the people. Each of them had some type of disfiguration. One woman’s eye were pure red, another man didn’t have any eyes. One man didn’t wasn’t human at all. Instead he appeared to be what looked like a giant dog on two legs dressed in a tux.

      Terrified, Reed searched desperately for the way out. He managed to locate a pair of large wooden doors that looked like the exit. He pushed his was to them and tried desperately to open them. They wouldn’t budge, locked from the other side. Out of pure fear though he continued to shake them, but to no avail. Then he heard it. The screaming. He refused to stop until he realized why it sounded so familiar. Alexis.

      Now scared for a whole other reason, he fought his way back through the crowd in the direction it seemed to be coming from. He paused when he spotted a small door on the other side of the room. He wasn’t sure how but he knew that was where she was. He rushed toward it but had to stop short when a man stepped in front of him. Reed instantly recognized him as the man from his other dream. He tried to move past him but found himself rooted to the spot. He was staring into the man’s terrifyingly black eyes when the scene molded into another view. Instead of the man, it was Christina staring at him, her eyes narrowed as if she were trying hard to see something. The movie was still playing in the background and no one else had seemed to notice he had dozed off.

      “You have Sight,” Christina declared suddenly, and something about the way she said it terrified Reed to the core.

      “Wh-what?” Was the only response he was able to force out. She didn’t get a chance to respond, for at that moment everything went black.

      A couple people screamed, while Alvin said a word that would have earned a nice smack from his mother. Unsure of what else to do, Reed remained bolted to his seat. After what was probably only a couple of minutes but seemed like an hour, another hand met his. He looked up to see Alexis’s blue eyes shining through the darkness. She yanked him from his seats and led him from the theater without so much as stumbling.

      The power didn’t seem to have been effected in the hallways, and once in the light Reed was able to see that she had also managed to grab Christina and Alvin. The four of them started towards the exit but Reed stopped in his tracks when he glanced behind him and saw the man from his visions standing at the end of the hallway. He was staring right at them, his head lowered, as if he was ready to attack, but he remained unmoving.

      “Reed?” Alexis asked when she noticed he had stopped. “What is it?”

      Reed looked at her, then back to where he’d seen the man. He had disappeared. “Nothing,” he said before jogging to catch up with them.

* * *

      Around 9:00 o’clock Alexis’s convertible pulled up in front of Reed’s house. She had given them all a ride home so Alvin didn’t have to call his mother, and Reed was that last one she was dropping off.

      After getting over the initial shock of power failure, the car ride had been relatively normal. It was only when Alexis put the car in park that things became uncomfortable. Not sure how to say goodbye, the two of them sat in awkward silence before Alexis offered to walk him to his porch.

      “So…” Reed started, trying to think of something to say.

      “I had fun,” Alexis finished for him. “You know, up until the power went out.”

      Reed smiled. “Me too.” After a minute of mental preparation, he began to in to kiss her goodnight, but she pulled away before he could touch her and ran down the walkway, throwing a simple goodnight over her shoulder.

      Reed stood there dumbfounded, unsure of what he’d done wrong. He looked after her, and called “Wait,” as she went to open her car door. She stopped and looked up at him as he came rushing down after her.

      “What’s up with that?” He shouted as he gestured back at his house. “I try to kiss you and you run away? Is there something I’m missing because you seemed just fine kissing me in front of the entire school the other day?”

      She looked at the ground without responding.

      “And what’s with the new personality and s****y clothes? Because they remind me nothing of the Alexis I used to know. Not to mention the ‘freak’ salad dressing incident and the thing with the movie theater. Something tells me those weren’t coincidences. All I’m asking is… well what’s going on with you?”

      When he finally stopped yelling Alexis looked up at him. When he saw her face he realized she was crying. It was a look he had only seen on her a few times, but seeing her like this made her appear so much more like the girl he remembered.

      Still silent, she walked around to the hood of her car and leaned up against it. Reed followed her.

      “I’ve changed,” she said once she spoke again. “In more ways than just my clothes and attitude.”

      “How?” Reed asked. It seemed like a dumb question, but it was the best one he had.

      “I can’t tell you. The only thing I can tell you is I’m nothing like the girl I used to be. I hope you can understand that.” When Reed didn’t answer right away she continued with, “Can you understand that?”

      “I… I don’t know right now,” he said. He had spent the past couple years dreaming of a girl he would give anything to have in his arms. And even though Alexis was right there next to him, he felt as though the girl he’d been imagining was still in Florida.

      Alexis nodded acceptingly and pulled him into a hug. “Goodnight Reed,” she said before driving off, leaving Reed on the side of the road, feeling farther from her than ever.

Reviews

[Larsa Valeth]

it is getting interesting, as would like a little description on the location and the people. also I got a little confused with the dialogue with who is specking sometimes you should put their names in and even tell us how they express it, like excitingly or joyfully and hopeful,

[Jamal]

hey sorry it took me so long to get to this, was doing some remodeling on my own story.... great work, continue to work hard........ and I rescind my earlier comment about being happy that alexis' transformation was only external.

[Silent Wolf]

What is up with Alexis? Wow this was so good! Mind sending me a read request or messaging me when you have more? I really wanna read more and I really wanna see what is up with Alexis!
100/100

[Hannah E. M.]

Sure, no problem. Glad you like it!

[Silent Wolf]

THANK YOU!