Of the Blood

Of The Blood

  By Joshua Laack

  Copyright 2013 Joshua Laack

  Table of Contents

  Introduction

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Epilogue

  Some things in this world cannot yet be explained by science. From these things, imagination explodes.

  Introduction

  The wind billowed up and ran its fingers through their hair. The two stood alone on top of the sandy hill, enjoying the silence and the great presence they felt in each other. This peace was to be short lived though. At the bottom of the hill waited death in droves. How could there be so many of them? Why did they have to come now? This new life together had just begun. It was far too soon for it to end, but there was little other choice. At least here they could choose their own way out. They would go out fighting to their last breath, sort of.

  Chapter 1

  Jefferson was an unexciting school of about four hundred and fifty students. At the moment, the cafeteria was buzzing with the voices of about half that number in juniors and seniors eagerly awaiting food that wasn't worth being excited about.

  “Andrew!” Andrew Stephen Marks didn't bother to look up at the excited voice calling his name across the lunchroom. There was only one possibility, one friend who had managed to find a way through the dark wall that separated him from everyone and everything.

  Andrew didn't understand why that wall was there. It just had been for as long as he could remember. As hard as he tried to overcome it, he stayed trapped within it. It was a gray and lonely world, but it was the only one he knew.

  His brow furrowed as he stared down at the six chicken flavored lumps with soggy breading that sat on the faded yellow tray in front of him. Andrew imagined that the lumps were staring back up at him. For a moment, he wished that he had chosen salad bar, but thinking of the choices there didn't sound any better than what he had. There were days when the soggy lettuce and four toppings were a much better choice than the main meal. Andrew finally looked up from his food and toward his only friend in the world, who was almost to the table where they always sat.

  Jason Meyer rushed up to the table with his own tray of pseudo meat. He was breathing a little harder than normal as he dropped the tray and sat on the round plastic seat across from Andrew. Dark brown eyes stared out from under bushy, jet black eyebrows. The matching hair had a little curve to it and it was long, though not quite to his shoulders. He wasn't exactly overweight, but he wasn't thin either. Jason claimed that he was just big boned. Andrew had light brown hair, hazel eyes and a wiry frame from a metabolism that devoured anything he ate without ever truly letting him achieve complete respite from hunger.

  The two had been friends since seventh grade when Jason moved into town with his dad after his parents divorced. Jason's dad, Jim, got a job working for an engineering company in town. His mom was too busy with her new family to have time for him so she gave custody to his father. Andrew sometimes tried to imagine what that must have been like for his friend. The only comparison he came up with was the darkness surrounding his own life.

  This wasn't far off the mark and it was this shared darkness that first brought the two together. Jason acted as if he didn't care about the past, but it bothered him more than he would admit, even to himself. It separated him from those who had the potential to abandon him like his mother did.

  For Andrew, the darkness had nothing to do with his parents who were both around and much involved in his life. They tried their hardest to reach their only child, but Andrew never connected with them. It wasn't just his parents. Andrew never connected with anyone. Nothing anyone did was able to penetrate the darkness around him. Andrew knew how hard they struggled to relate to him and he struggled to reach through the darkness as well, but until Jason came along, he was not able to bridge the gap.

  They both were into fantasy. Andrew's loneliness and the darkness made the fantasy worlds seem much better than anything that this life had to offer. And Jason's dark past pulled him to the fantastical for much the same reason. Needless to say, their preference for make believe had not made them popular among the students at Jefferson.

  The vast majority of the students just ignored them, the rest spent their time being cruel. The school as a whole was focused on sports and other popular activities that had never been of much interest to either boy. In response to the ridicule, both Andrew and Jason pulled even more away from the world around them. The final result was two young boys surrounded by people everyday and yet still alone.

  As Jason looked at Andrew across the table, he was quivering with some knowledge that he couldn't wait to share. In spite of the dark mood that accompanied Andrew, he couldn't help but produce a small smile at his friend's excitement.

  “This ought to be good,” Andrew said, the almost real smile stretching his face, though not quite reaching his eyes. Jason chuckled.

  “What gave it away that I had something to share?”

  “Just a guess...” Andrew responded with a slight shrug, the smile already gone as the darkness pulled it from his face. Jason didn't seem to notice as he plowed forward with his news, voice cracking slightly as he struggled to contain his excitement.

  “Okay. So listen to this. I was just in the office for a minute between study hall and lunch and I overheard the principle talking to a new transfer student in his office. I waited around for a bit to see if I could catch a glimpse of her, but the secretary told me to get to lunch.” Actually, this was more interesting than Andrew expected. Jason's tidbits of news often ended up being silly with a large helping of lame.

  “A new student? That hasn't happened since you showed up.” Andrew paused, for a moment feeling a burst of elation that was larger than it should have been for the news just shared. The elation was accompanied with a view beyond the wall.

  In that brief and unexpected respite from gray, the world seemed brighter than it had ever felt for Andrew. Real happiness flooded him and he felt like laughing. “I wonder if she is into fantasy.” Andrew and Jason looked at each other for a moment and then burst into laughter, something neither experienced often.

  The feeling was short lived. Before Andrew even had time to enjoy the light, reality returned and with it crashed bleak grayness around him. It was a nice thought, but no girl ever wanted to hang out with the nerds of Jefferson High. Andrew felt the last bit of light fading from him as he had the sad thought that he would never find a girl who would like him. He was going to grow old and die alone. The wall chuckled as it closed back in around him, cutting him off once more from the world.

  After the bell signaling the end of lunch, the two boys walked together to Government Studies, the only cl
ass they shared. Ms. Frankin, was taking the class through the presidential election process since this was an election year. A few students in the class would be eighteen and able to vote when the time came, but Andrew's birthday wasn't until the twentieth of February so he wouldn't be one of them. He wasn't concerned about it though. Politics seemed unimportant compared to the dragons, wizards, vampires and the other magical things that filled his free time. The mystical world was a happier place than the real one.

  Andrew wished that one of his fantasy worlds and reality would trade places. He knew it was a crazy thought that would never happen. The real world and the fantastical were forever destined to be as far from each other as he was from being freed from the dark cloak that rested perpetually upon his shoulders. It was with this bleak perspective that Andrew sat down in his assigned seat for the class. What he never imagined as he did, was that a new chapter was about to begin.