The Dark Initiate: Reverie (03)

Euan carried his lunch on the canteen tray and tried to find a table. However, wherever he tried to look, the stares of others told him he was not invited. A couple of turns around the canteen floor saw a couple start to move from a small table. He picked up his feet and moved there fast waiting for the eventual evacuation. They glared at him but then picked up their bags and left. He popped his tray on a small amount of space and attempted to clear their meal vestiges and place his own. He kept turning to watch his acquired table whilst he put the tray rightfully where the dirty dishes go. His food had been spat in before and he did not want it to happen again.

Steak and kidney pie with chips. The steak was palatable but the gravy was runny and the chips were cold. His mind lingered back to that day on the banks of the Mersey and the apparition which had returned in his dreams. Since that day something else had peculiarly happened to him. He experienced depression and rage like a twisting coin never too sure whether to land on heads or tails. He also felt odd twinges and a prickling sensation and he could have sworn that it was not just his own voice that spoke to him. There was also the stranger’s wistful thoughts but then it would drop to a deeper bass and become more forceful like a ravaging tornado ripping through his head.

He forced the gooey pastry into his mouth. The last forkful. Then realised he had not bought a drink. Oh don’t worry, his mind prompted, get one from the common room drink machine. The orange Fanta should be filled up by now. So obediently he went. His mind kept flipping from self-thought to the sound of his feet and the whitened walls that seemed to shoulder his passage. He was not ready for the next thing that happened. He felt the side of his face wincing with pain.

“Oops! sorry! I was just stretching my arms. I did not see you there. “

The perpetrator’s face said differently as it beamed into a grin. Jackson was a big lad, nearly almost double the width of Euan. He was strong and agile and excelled at sport. Euan was sure a tooth was broken and he could feel his blood warming the side of his mouth as it leaked from the wound. He was at the entrance to the common room and they were the only ones there. This was typical of Jackson, he enjoyed ambushing, not that he needed to, he just enjoyed initiating surprise. And the more painful a surprise was, the more he loved it.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

Euan swallowed his blood quickly so he could answer fast as he knew Jackson was inclined to follow up if he did not receive an immediate reply.

“To get a drink” Euan dipped his head trying to avert his gaze in case he encouraged further violence.

“So you have money. Give it me! I could do with one as well.” He did not wait for an answer, his hands followed the trace of Euan’s pockets and soon found the coins in them. There was about 70 pence. A fifty pence coin and the rest were in coppers.

“I will take the 50p, I don’t need the rest of it” he then threw the remaining coins unceremoniously on the laminated floor. They jingled and scattered.

“Now sod off yer runt” he said spitting out his distaste for the Welsh and especially for Euan. He wandered to the other side of the common room where the drinks machine stood just behind the door.

ANIMATE

That single thought came like a juggernaut ram-raiding a jewellery shop. It was part of the deep voice that he heard shortly after the stranger’s familiar tone. His skin started to prickle and a slight spasm was invading his nerves. The rage spilt out. His mouth formed the word and like an uncorked bottle of champagne it erupted with a deep resonant sound.

Jackson froze. Something awful had invaded his head. Fear, intense fear. His motion captured just after he dropped the coin in the machine. The metal of the machine creaked a metallic shrill and distorted to the shape of a large maw. It wrapped round Jackson crushing him into the drink outlet. And then as if it never happened it almost reverted to its normal shape. A metallic sound clanked as it hit the bottom. It was the drink Jackson ordered, and then the blood came.

Euan was initially shocked but then a vengeful sense of satisfaction took over instead. It told him to get out – to another part of the school. The Magic had now taken hold and now served its course through its controller – in a part of space where the ethereal form was unseemingly happy.

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