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X-ality
Daniel Kuehn
Chapter 1
Dead
Yellow eyes in the dark. Screams rang. A
rippling growl echoed in the night . . .
Jason
Sorn gasped, blinking away the strange mental sounds and images. Where did that come from? He frowned and
shook his head. Weird.
Jason
sat at a table in a food court beside a Starbucks. The warm, kind, and
sweet-sour smell of coffee grounds pervaded the air like quiet memories.
Childish laughter surrounded him with feet pounding on the hard floor, and
voices echoing in the large expanses of the mall.
“You
okay?”
Jason
jumped in his chair. He’d forgotten that his best friend Shane still sat across
the table from him. Shane, a ginormous quarterback, grinned back at him. His
dark brown eyes twinkled. “What’s wrong with you? You look a little—what’s the
word—disgruntled?”
Jason
smirked. “The football player has
cracked open the dictionary! Congrats on your first step to getting a
brain cell. ”
Shane
didn’t answer at first. He slurped up more Mocha Frappuccino from his cup and
then rolled his eyes. “Hey, I like words. You know I’ve gotten straights A’s in
English.” He was a quarterback through and through, but the strangest
part of Shane’s personality was his love for words. He could be practicing
football, laughing with his friends, and then later be in a corner reading a
book during the same day.
Jason
shrugged, chuckling. “Yeah, yeah, I know. In all seriousness though, I’m fine.
So, where were we?” He wasn’t really
fine, but how could he tell his best friend he’d just about jumped out of his
skin over some yellow eyes and a scream in his head?
“I
was trying to tell you that Kiera likes you,” Shane said.
“She
doesn’t.”
“How
do you know she doesn’t?
“Well,
how do you know she does?”
“She
always sits by you. You should see how she looks at you when she thinks no
one’s looking. That’s evidence or I’m crazy!” Shane said triumphantly. He acted
like a quarterback in football
A blaze
of yellow flashed. A sudden scream—
Chills
raced up Jason’s spine as the sounds and images invaded his mind. His heart
began to pound. He wiped his clammy forehead with the back of his hand. His
skin felt hot. Do I have a fever?
Shane
was still talking. “Of course, Kiera’s not a blond—which I prefer—but she’s cute, really cute.”
Jason
tried to push the creepy images from his mind. “Sure, whatever you say, Miss
Matchmaker.”
Shane
looked offended. “I’m not a matchmaker! And I’m definitely not a ‘miss’.”
“Well,
you’re acting like one.” Jason laughed, trying to brush the troubling images
aside. Where did the thoughts come from? Jason started a mental tally of all
the creepy movies he’d seen.
World War Z?
No.
Aliens?
Definitely
not.
Just
then, Jason’s iPhone buzzed. Fishing it out of his pocket, Jason glanced at the
screen. It was a text from his mom.
YOUR FATHER
AND I ARE DONE LOOKING AROUND THE MALL. MEET US @ THE CAR IN FIVE.
Jason
looked at the time the message was sent. Twenty minutes ago! He got to his
feet, jammed the phone in his pocket, and hurriedly grabbed his untouched
Frappuccino off the table.
Shane
stood up in surprise. “What’s up?”
“We
need to go,” Jason said. “My mom told me to meet her at the car twenty minutes
ago. My stupid phone is acting up again. It didn’t receive the message until
now.”
Shane
grabbed his green backpack from the floor and fell in line with Jason. He
swaggered, tall, and strong with his brown hair and dark eyes finished the good
looking package. Jason nervously checked the time again and hurried on.
Five
minutes later, they reached the exit. The automatic doors slid open and the
warm night air rushed into Jason’s face. The sounds of the mall became muffled
as the doors shut behind them.
Jason
fished his phone out of his pocket, checking for new texts from his mom.
Nothing. Then he heard Shane gasp. “Wow.”
“What?”
Jason looked up and stopped. The mall parking lot was crowded with
cars and people. Cameras flashed. Reporters shouted behind yellow caution tape. Gaping, Jason slipped his phone back into his
pocket.
In
the middle of this confusion, paramedics were hurriedly lifting two bodies onto
gurneys. Jason couldn’t see anything from behind the paramedics. He stood on
tiptoe and strained to make out the figures being carried away. His gaze caught
a bare, slender hand hanging limply off one of the gurneys.
A
diamond bracelet hung around the wrist.
Then
the world stopped spinning for Jason. The flashing lights burned his soul like
fire and he forgot to think—to breathe.
“Mom!”
Jason cried. That’s her favorite
bracelet! His heart plunged to his stomach, and he took off running.
“Jason!
Stop! What do you think you’re doing?” Shane shouted behind him.
Jason
ignored him. He pushed through the crowd and ducked under the yellow tape.
A
police officer stepped forward. “Hey! Stay back!”
Jason
took no notice of the officer. He raced past him and reached the gurneys,
shaky, and suddenly covered in sweat. “Mom! Mom!”
A
paramedic was laying a white sheet over the woman’s face. It took Jason a full
second to realize what that sheet meant. She’s . . . dead? Jason froze, stunned. His eyes flicked to the other gurney,
where his father lay. His father’s bright blue eyes stared back at him blankly.
His eyes sucked Jason’s mind into to their deep blue chasms. Another paramedic
laid a white sheet over him, cutting Jason off from those blue depths.
No! No! No!
Jason
stood upright, numb. A strong hand gripped his arm. “Hey kid, get back behind
the caution tape!”
Jason
turned, slowly. A police officer towered over him. His green eyes flashed.
Normally Jason would’ve felt daunted by this tower of flesh but right now he
just didn’t care. Nothing really mattered anymore.
“Th-they
. . . they were my parents,” Jason said.
The
officer faltered, stood silent for a moment, and then his grip on Jason’s arm
loosened. “You’re their son?”
“Yeah,
I—I’m Jason . . . Sorn.”
The
officer nodded. He took a deep breath and pinched his nose with his thumb and
forefinger as if to think. “I’m Officer Yates.” He stopped to look at Jason
again. “I’m very sorry for your loss. I—”
“How
did this happen?” Jason interrupted, a lump beginning to grow in his throat.
Officer
Yates’ jaw muscles twitched. “We don’t know. We got an anonymous call and found
them in the alley over there.” He pointed to a dark opening between two
buildings. “We got to the scene just as your mother died. She kept saying
something about ‘a dark face’ and ‘glowing yellow eyes.’ That’s all I know, I’m
sorry.”
Through his muddled and numb
mind, Jason began to wonder. Glowing
yellow eyes. A dark face. How can I know this?
Jason caught a glimpse of
Shane pushing through the crowd. “Jason!”
Jason didn’t answer. Yates
began to lead him away from the gurneys. He didn’t have the energy to resist,
or talk, or anything. Cameras flashed. Shouts echoed loudly in Jason’s ears.
Shane ducked under the tape
but was stopped by a female police officer. “Stay back, sir!”
“I’m a friend.”
“I don’t care, stay back!”
Shane ducked back under the
yellow tape and waited. Shane’s eyes met Jason’s. Neither one spoke.
Jason couldn’t help looking
back—just one more time. The bodies were still lying on the gurneys. The
flashing lights burned his parent’s forms into his soul. Tears filled his
vision. They’re gone.
