Chapter Four

When Travis finished his sketch, a familiar scene stared back at him: Oblivion's domain. His insides churned as he remembered the dream, echoes of pain washing over his hand and chest. Swallowing back breakfast, he told himself to calm down. It was only a dream. Right?

As he packed his things, his head pounded as though someone was smashing his brain with a sledgehammer. Halfway down the hall, Giovanni called to him.

What does he want now? He'd better have a good reason for talking to me, or I'll castrate him with my bare hands. Then I'll force-feed the stupid redhead his balls. 

"Wait up, Travis. Ms. Molly wanted me to ask you the title of your drawing and where the idea came from. Oh, and Coach Campbell's subbing for Ms. Martin's English class today." Redness splashed across Giovanni's face, painting his neck, his ears, and finally, his face scarlet.

"Tell her it's called `A Midwinter Night's Scream.'" He scowled at Giovanni. "Anything else you need?"

"Um, and like, that fight you had with Maxwell was hella sweet. The look on his face when you pushed him was legit priceless. I'm so glad someone finally put that ass muncher in his place," Giovanni continued, his words slurring together in a squeaky tone. 

"One, it was from a dream. Two, if you saw it, then you know it wasn't a fight. Three, I can handle myself without you butting into my affairs." He stomped away, wishing he were at home right then playing a few rounds of Mortal Kombat.

  "Oh, okay. See you in the gym."

 Travis stopped and turned. "Don't remind me."

"Green and Miler will be there too, so it should be tons of fun." 

Lovely.

***

French class passed without incident until a spider landed on Travis's desk, making his skin crawl. He raised his textbook, ready to smash it when he had another vision. 

A giant spider with bloody legs and foot-long fangs covered in saliva stood over him, its onyx eyes boring through him. Then it lowered its head.

As quickly as it had come, the vision left him, and he sat there dumbfounded, his stomach queasy with terror. 

What's happening to me?

The chime ending class sounded, breaking his stupor. He shook his head, gathered his things, and made his way toward the gym. Along the way, Giovanni joined him, and Travis struggled to contain his annoyance. 

As they jogged to the athletic wing of the school, Giovanni chatted away as if they were acquaintances or something. Travis ignored him for the most part but occasionally suppressed a laugh when he said something genuinely funny, though he didn't think Giovanni meant to.

  Class with Mr. Campbell subbing meant a trip to the gym and a one-way ticket to the bleachers for Travis. He glared at his inhaler and then plopped down, retrieving his sticky-note-laden copy of Frankenstein and began reading. 

AP Prep was technically a charter school, which meant anyone could attend, although they charged the students fees for everything, including gym outfits and lockers, even if you never used them. This made it cost-prohibitive for most of the kids on Travis's side of town to attend. Travis would have attended Thurgood Marshall Middle School, but his paternal grandfather's will stipulated he had to go to a prep school or the equivalent to access his trust fund. Bobby and Amber had no such stipulation. The lucky bastards.

He looked up when he heard someone calling his name. Just his luck; Keith Maxwell and his cronies were also there, shooting him dirty looks and making obscene gestures when Mr. Campbell wasn't looking. 

"You're toast," Maxwell mouthed, then made a throat-slitting gesture. 

Travis mouthed, "Bring it," and then stuck his nose in his book. 

Once the kids who were late had finished running laps, Mr. Campbell told those from Ms. Martin's class that she'd assigned them a group project of no more than three people. They were to write a twenty-page report on Frankenstein, due at the end of the year, worth fifty percent of their final grade.

 He passed out the assignment packets, telling those who wanted to that they could form groups now or dress out and join the activities in the gym. Then he dismissed them while he went to look after his gym class. There was much groaning all around.

Slackers. What did they expect from Honors English?

 Since he had no social life, and that's the way he liked it, Travis was on his third read. The only problem was the group part of the equation. He shrugged and figured he could talk Ms. Martin into letting him work alone if his paper were twice the length. He dug back into the book. A few minutes passed when Giovanni saddled up next to him, all smiles.

"Hey, you wanna do the project together?" 

He didn't look up from the book. "Yeah. No. You've spent years tormenting me and now wanna act like we're bosom buddies? I don't think so." 

"Um, yeah. I've been meaning to formally introduce myself and apologize. JJ Giovanni, resident smartass and the dude you had a kung-fu action grip on this morning." He stuck out his petite hand. Travis looked at the proffered appendage a moment, then continued reading. 

"Way to leave me hanging, dude." He pulled his hand back. "Anyway, you um, want to do the paper together or what?"

Travis glanced at Giovanni over the brim of his book, his annoyance rising. "No, thanks."

"Come on, bro. I see you're almost done, and I'll be finished in like a week, giving us more than enough time to--"

"Nein, nyet, no."

"Alas! It seems I must level up my charisma if I'm to get Travis the Moody to join my party."

Travis snorted. "That was pretty funny. Not like the scatological humor you usually trade in."

Giovanni's face light up in a smile. "Seriously? No one likes my geeky shtick. And what's with the ten-dollar words?"

"I wouldn't say I liked it. And it's not my fault you have the vocabulary of protozoa. Now, will you leave me alone? I'm sure your friends are starting to wonder about us. And we wouldn't want that, right?" He quirked an eyebrow, the corner of his mouth turned up in a half-smirk.

Giovanni wiggled his bushy eyebrows. "Or would we?"

"You're quite droll, you know that? However, much like a dog humping one's leg, the novelty has worn off."  

"But I was just trying to be friendly. I just thought maybe--"

"That you'd say a few kind words to the freak you've bullied for years, and he'd be duped into doing your work for you? That you'd flash that cocky smile of yours, and I'd bow down to you like everyone else does?" Travis replied, dropping his book and getting to his feet. "Leave!"

 "Why are you so mad at me? I just thought you could use someone to talk to. You're not who I thought you were," Giovanni said, taking a step back, his lips trembling and eyes wet.  

Travis stared him down, his rage at Giovanni's presumption of knowing him spilling over. "Fuck you. Don't ever in your life try to holler at me like that again! You don't know the first thing about me and don't have the right to speak on me. Until you do, you'd best keep my name out yo' mouth or you finna catch these hands." 

"Dude, mood whiplash much? What did I ever do to make you hate me so much, huh? All I did was treat you nice today."

"But what about all the other times you and your friends clowned me, huh?" 

He took a step toward Giovanni, delighting in the fear he saw in the smaller boy's eyes.

Giovanni stepped back, and barely loud enough for Travis to hear, said, "You don't know how hard it was just to say hi to you today." Giovanni then straightened his spine, his head held high, and clenched his jaw. "You don't know the first thing about me!" 

Giovani's fist slammed into Travis's jaw, disorienting him, and for a moment, he heard alarms blaring.

He made to hit him again, but Travis dodged as if his body were moving of its own accord. He caught Giovanni in the stomach with a knee, doubling him over.

Well, all those years spent playing fighting games weren't a waste after all. 

Travis followed up with an uppercut, and blood gushed from Giovani's nose. When it looked like Travis was going to hand Giovanni his ass, several of his friends piled onto Travis, kicking and punching him all over.

He crawled into a ball, trying to protect himself, but there were too many. As darkness encroached on the edges of his vision, a tingling sensation ran up his spine, and his vision blurred. And then Travis was on a plateau overlooking a forest. 

Before he had a chance to process things, it was as if he were watching events through a camera high above the room, as though he were out of his body, asleep but awake at the same time. Travis watched himself roll out of the clutches of those hooligans and kick their asses like no one's business.

"Enjoy the show, kid," said his headmate.

Watching Giovanni get his face bashed in was such a joy, but then Travis saw Maxwell coming up from the side.

"Look out!" he cried too late as Maxwell bashed in the back of his head. And for a moment, Travis saw stars.

"Next time, be faster."  

 He watched their body stumble, but his headmate righted theirself and charged Maxwell. The two collided, pushing them backward by the force of the impact, while Maxwell remained upright, smiling.

 They lost their footing, and Maxwell laughed. 

But not for long.  

They caught theirself, got on their feet, and charged Maxwell again. This time when they approached him, they kicked him in the chest with both feet, bringing Maxwell to the ground with a boom.

Maxwell's eyes rolled up in his head and then closed.

"One down," Travis said.

Then David Green's massive frame crashed into Travis, sending them head-first into the bleachers. Their forehead split open, blood cascading down their face as pain jolted through Travis. His headmate, however, showed no signs of being hurt and got up, smiled, then wiped the blood out of their eyes. 

Green made to strike them, but they caught his wrist and tossed the musclebound teen over their shoulder. Straddling Green's hips, they rained down blows as if they were a UFC fighter, Green's Star of David pendant becoming covered in blood.

Travis spotted Jason Miller barreling toward them, his lanky frame a human missile.

"Look out."

The view of his body somersaulting in the air and then landing on Miller's back wasn't graceful, but he'd be damned if it didn't fill him with glee seeing that bastard get his comeuppance.

Miler went down as if an anvil had hit him, the breath and fight going out of him in one big whoosh. He lay still, his eyes glassy and mouth frozen in a grimace.

They turned back to Green, who'd recovered and was in a defensive stance that reminded Travis of the old kung-fu movies he loved to watch.

"Give it up, Turner. I've been taking karate since I was four."

"Then this should be all the more fun . . . for me."

"Everyone on the ground now," shouted a school resource officer as she reached for her stun gun.

"Hey, pretty lady. You wanna get freaky with me?" his headmate said.

"Okay, things have gotten way out of hand."

Travis floated down from his perch near the ceiling, but as he neared his body, he hit an invisible wall, sending him backward.

"Naw, kid. The show's just starting."

"What are you doing? In case you haven't noticed, that's a cop you're talking about hurting."

"She don't start nothing, won't be nothing."

Travis tried entering his body again but met the same fate. How could his body turn on him like this? The one place he had to himself, the place no one could enter but him, was no longer safe. How dare his headmate take that from him. How dare it violate his inner sanctum. Waves of rage washed over him, and in the distance, he heard the cry of a great bird again.

"This isn't a joke. It's time you let me back in control."

"Nope."

"I said on the ground now. Kid. Or I'm going to tase you."

Travis tried again, this time getting closer to his body, feeling the invisible barrier give a little.

"I ain't going back in there. If you don't want this cop to pull a Michael Brown on us, then I suggest you calm yo' ass down and . . ."

The resource officer shot her taser at them, and as 10,000 volts coursed through their body, the invisible wall fell, and Travis slid back inside his body. 

Whether he would live was another matter. 

 

Author's note: And the plot thickens. Next time we meet Nurse Jenny who's taken care of Travis for years, and get more of the backstory on Travis and his powers.

Let me know your comments and constructive criticism at phenix39@yahoo.com

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