The Awakening: Episode 1

William A. Ramirez, Staff Writer

Jeffrey Summers was an average high school student. He enjoyed the company of his peers and football. He was a quarterback for his football team until he was tackled in the wrong place; the ankle injury had him on the bench for the season. He loved to be in the library because it was much more quiet than the lunch room. He enjoyed the silence.

This is where Jeffery’s adventure begins…

 

“OK Mom, I’m going to bed now, goodnight.” I close my door with a gentle push. I turn to the unmade bed, and think about making it for a second.  It doesn’t really matter now since I am going to sleep. I crawl into the layers of uneven sheets and feel the coll cloth become warm where it touches my skin. I close my eyes to shut out the light from the window and hope  the calm darkness carries me away to sleep.

I jerk awake. It feels like my heart skipped a beat. What woke me up? I hear a loud bang. I hear another one, but it is not as loud.

I feel around to see where I might be, I feel an ice cold desk. I don’t have a desk next to my bed. Do I? No.

I open my eyes and blink in the light of Mr. Fredrickson’s classroom. I look at the small poster of his favorite band he hides on the bottom of the bulletin board next to his desk. I look from left to right. What is going on? Was I sleeping in class? Did I sleep walk to school? I look out the window and it is pure white…It is pure white outside like the middle of a blizzard. The room is empty except for me and the school furniture.

I listen for outside sounds, but it is dead silent. I get up from the desk and look towards the front of the room again at Mr. Fredrickson’s desk. Something shiny catches my eye. I am at his desk without even realizing I walked there. It looks like some broken glass from some kind of bottle.

That isn’t too odd because Mr. Fredrickson is the Physics teacher. I go through his desk, opening all the drawers trying to find some kind of clue as to what is going on. I keep finding crumpled up pieces of paper with nothing but scribbles on them. I see one crumpled up piece of paper that is oddly shaped, as if the paper was wrapping around some kind of stone.

I pick it up and unravel the paper to find the flint that Mr. Fredrickson had used in the last class experiment. I feel compelled to keep it even though I don’t normally take things. I slide it into my pocket and made my way down the columns of desks to the door that leads out to the hall.

I wrap my hand around the knob of the door and feel an abnormal coldness to the metal. I shudder without warning. I open the door at a swift pace to get over my fear, but the only thing I could see is the hallway to my school. I poke my head out the door to look up the hallway and only see what I normally would, the bathrooms and identical classroom doors with random pictures to tell me whose classroom is whose. I step out into the hall, and do what I normally do when I don’t know what to do. I go to the bathroom.

As soon as I turn to the bathrooms I hear that loud bang again. It sounds like metal hitting metal. I go to investigate the loud bang.