Maia screamed, cowering in fear. She hurried away as my energy shot up, engulfing the park in a sea of light.
Elysian looked on thoughtfully as I finally slumped over, exhausted and breathless but no longer on fire. “Maybe this will work after all,” he murmured.
The power flow ceased. I stood up, straighter than before; my wounds were gone. And I felt normal again.
I saw Starry Knight stirring from her position on the ground. That’s right, she’d just saved me. Again, I guess. I thought about maybe saying thank you when she briskly picked up her bow and started walking away.
“Wait!” I called after her. She stilled for a moment, but kept walking. A second later, she leapt, and her wings caught her, and she was soaring off into the night.
Elysian came up to me as Starry Knight’s retreating figure slowly faded away. “You did well,” he praised. “Not bad at all for your first try.”
I flinched. “You’re real?!”
Elysian sighed, flicking his scaly tail. “You just frightened away one of the most deadly forces to all creation, and you’re concerned about me?” he asked. “That’s rather illogical, even in human terms.”
“Well, who are you? What are you?” I asked skeptically.
“Me? Well, my name is Elysian. I am a Celestial Dragon. A changeling.”
I felt like laughing. “A changeling dragon?”
Elysian huffed. “I am able to appear in other forms besides a dragon, can’t you see? Do your eyes work right?”
I should’ve known then and there Elysian was going to be pain. I am amazed to this day that I didn’t catch on sooner to his annoying self.
“Yes, but I’ve never seen one of those before.” And don’t want to for a long time, I reminded myself silently.
The dragon-lizard was very odd. It was a lot smaller than traditional dragons, for one thing – if it weren’t for the wings, it would’ve looked like a regular, though severely beat up, lizard of some sort. His body was long, covered in scales, with dark green, bat-like wings on the back, and smaller ones on his feet. His eyes were green, a glowing yellow-green; and they held a mix of hardness, pity, and impatience.
“Well, it’s a rare race of dragons, indeed,” Elysian straightened with dignity. “Even in the Immortal Realm, there are not many.” He folded back his wings, so they disappeared into his scaly back. “Now that I’m here, you just tell your family I’m your new pet.”
“Whoa, what makes you think you’re coming home with me?”
“Shouldn’t you be checking on your friends?” he asked. “It’s getting rather late, I’d say.”
I frowned, but the ugly dragon or whatever it was had a point. Gwen still needed to go to the hospital for her wrist and whatever else was broken thanks to Maia and her attack.
13
Marked
I sighed as my mother either berated or commended me over the phone; I wasn’t really certain what she was saying, because Adam’s with her, tearing his room to pieces, and my cell phone signal was low inside of the hospital. Just smile and nod, I thought.
That’s the best way to handle parents like mine. Just smile and nod.
Gwen was getting fixed up in the emergency room while Mikey was looking for some food. I’d been waiting in the waiting room when Cheryl called. She’d apparently walked in the house with Adam, turned on the news, and almost had a heart attack. At least that was how it sounded.
“Yeah, okay, Cheryl,” I interrupted her. I’d lost track of the conversation enough.
“That’s no way to address your mother, Ham!”
“Got to go,” I said as I hung up.
There was a smirk on the tiny face of the dragon. “Family issues?” Elysian asked.
“Why did you follow us here, again?” I glanced around nervously; I didn’t want anyone to see me talking to what looked like a deformed snake. “I don’t think they let animals in here,” I informed Elysian.
Elysian puffed. “You need me.”
“No, I don’t. I was fine – better than fine – before you came along.”
Elysian cocked an eyebrow. “Oh, really? You’d rather live in ignorance your whole life than know what is really going on?”
I gritted my teeth. “I can see what is going on just fine.”
“Ah, so you know how you got that mark on your wrist, then.” Elysian’s smirk grew. “And you know all about the power you emitted a while ago, I see.” He smiled mockingly.
“What?” I looked down and saw there was indeed a small, black four-pointed star on the underside of my wrist. “How did that – how did you – did you do this!?”
The tiny dragon glowed, transforming into the shape of a chameleon, before hopping up on my shoulder. His eyes glistened arrogantly. “You see? You do have questions.”
“How am I going to explain this to my parents?” I asked, staring at the unwelcome mark in disbelief. “They’re not even letting me drive until I’m eighteen. I can’t tell them I got a tattoo! Tell me how to get rid of it!”
Now Elysian looked away. He’s silent for a moment, and he seemed to be rather fidgety.
“Oh, great. You don’t know either,” I snorted. “Thanks a bunch.”
“Well, I don’t know,” Elysian huffed indignantly. “But you won’t get close to figuring it out on your own without me. Just calm down.”
“Calm down!? Are you crazy?”
There’s a tap on my shoulder, and I jumped about a foot in the air. Mikey stood behind me, trying hard not to laugh.
“Hey, man,” he said. “Who’re you talking to?”
“Uh… Cheryl called, apparently in hysterics.” Blaming the parents nearly always worked.
“You fighting with your parents again?”
“You mean my ex-parents,” I corrected him. “I’m suing for divorce the moment I turn eighteen.”
“I don’t recommend it,” Mikey smiled. “You know Cheryl. She could whip you and get the legal right to do it.”
“I guess so. I still need them for college money. Maybe I’ll wait until I’m twenty-one.”
Mikey laughed and held out the extra cup he has in his hand. “Here’s some coffee for you.”
I smiled as I sipped. Ah… there was nothing in the world like the rush of bitter beans ground up in extra caffeine. “Thanks. Did you see Mark anywhere?”
“No. This is the emergency room, not the heart floor,” Mikey reminded me. “We can’t be sure he’ll come anyway, you know. He might be in surgery.”
“Yeah, I suppose,” I agreed. “Gwen still hasn’t come out.”
“I sure hope she’s okay.”
The concern etched on Mikey’s face confused me slightly before I recalled Mikey was the one who’d introduced me to Gwen back in junior high; I’d suspected Mikey even had a crush on Gwen for a while, but they were just good friends now.
Still, I supposed Mikey was entitled to feel a bit more worried than what the situation usually required. It’s not often someone gets injured by a real monster.
“I’m sure she’ll be fine,” I told him, trying to shift his attention away from me. Elysian was still clinging to my sleeve in a very casual, almost unnoticeable way. I hoped the stupid dragon was smart enough not to get himself noticed while we were in the company of normal people.
Mikey slouched further down into the uncomfortable chair. “You know, people are going to start thinking our school is cursed or something,” he laughed, almost nervously.
“Yeah.”
“I mean, Rosemont was destroyed, but there were fewer injuries there than there were at Homecoming and now the play.” He looked over at me and asked, “Do you think it’s possible some kids from Rosemont were in on this? That the rivalry between our schools has finally led them off into the deep end?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. But that smurf-lady and monster-guy, they had pretty realistic costumes.”
“Yeah, I bet it was just a bunch of kids. After all, Rosemont was a private school. Over half those kids are rich.”
“Who do you think that girl was? The one with the bow and arrows? Was she in on it, too?”
Mikey grinned. “Even if she was, I know who she is.”
“Really?” I looked skeptical. “Who was she, then?”
“She’s my next girlfriend.”
I groaned. “What makes you think she’s real? Maybe we just had a hallucination.”
“More than one person can’t have the same hallucination, Dinger, that’s just stupid.”
“Well, what about age? She could be older than you.”
Mikey contemplated this. “Well, there’s no way of being sure, but even if she turns out older than me by five or six years, I could adjust to it. Now, younger would be more of a problem, but I could wait.”
I was about to ask how he intended to find her again when Gwen came out with her parents. “Gwen!”
“Hey, guys,” Gwen greeted us with a tired voice.
Jody – Mrs. Kessler – ran up to me and threw me into a hug. “You saved my baby!” she cried. “Again!”
Mr. Kessler was more sedate. He reached out his hand to me. “Thank you, son. We’re indebted to you for protecting our Gwennie.”
“No problem, Mr. Kessler,” I smiled as I shook his hand.
“Call me John,” he said warmly.
Gwen was blushing, probably from her parent’s embarrassing display. But I was hoping it was for other reasons, too.
“Are you feeling better?” I asked her.
Gwen’s eyes glittered with happiness. “Yes, thanks to you and Starry Knight I am,” she smiled. Indicating her arm, she added, “It’s only a broken wrist, but the doctor told us I was lucky compared to the others from Central.” She looked at me curiously for a moment. “What about you, Hammy? Where are your bruises?”
“Uh, what do you mean?” I asked, vaguely recalling how I had been miraculously healed.
“You were thrown on the ground and through a window. Not to mention into a tree. I thought you had some cuts earlier.”
“Well…” I (briefly) glared at Elysian, who smirked up at me with an ‘I-told-you-so’ look on his face. Another riddle to solve. “I must’ve just looked like I was scraped up. I have no idea what you’re talking about. Hey, is that my dad over there?”
Here’s a good hint. Awkward conversations are soon remedied by changing the subject. And it’s best to change the subject to something connected to the conversation or environment. That way you won’t be called on it.
Elysian snickered into my sleeve.
“I don’t see him,” Gwen said, craning her neck to see down the hall behind her.
“Gwen, honey, we’d better go,” her mother called out to her. “It’s late.”
“Coming! Give me one moment!” she called back. Gwen turned her attention back to me. “My mom told me school was canceled tomorrow.”
“Well, I guess I’ll see you on Monday then,” I squeezed her good shoulder affectionately.
She pushed through my shoulder pat to give me a hug. “Yeah… thanks again, Hammy. I really appreciate you saving my life again.” She looked over at Mikey. “I owe thanks to you, too, Mike, for helping to get me out of there.”
“It’s nothing. It’s what friends are for,” Mikey smiled brightly. “Who else is going to help you out when you’re being chased down by a monster from outer space?”
Conjuring up a mental image of Starry Knight, I wisely said nothing (for once.)
“Eek! A snake!”
I shuddered at my mother’s shriek. It was late, and everyone was usually in bed. But thanks to the monsters, I’d lost eight dollars for the play, fought weirdo-alien people, went to the hospital, and now shared my room with an annoying dragon – a dragon which my mother had no doubt just found sneaking around the house.
“Cheryl, you can be so annoying,” I muttered to myself as I made my way downstairs.
I found my mother having her conniption as she stood on the armchair in the living room.
“Uh, what’s wrong now?”
Cheryl pointed to the couch. “There’s a snake under there! I saw it! I saw it!”
“It’s not a snake. It’s… well… I kinda forget to mention I brought home a new pet today.”
“What?”
“Well, it’s like a project. For biology. It’s not a snake, either; it’s um…” I scratched my head. ‘Changeling dragon’ wasn’t really a common pet for anyone. “Well, he’s a rare lizard Mr. Elm wanted me to take care of for a while… since I’m doing a report on it!” Yeah, that’s it. Brilliant. Another brilliant imaginary fabrication.
“You’re sure it’s not a snake?”
“Positive,” I promised.
“Well, good!” she exclaimed as she climbed down from the chair. “Next time that you do something like this for school, ask Mr. Elm for a signed permission slip!”
“Won’t happen again, Cheryl.”
She frowned. “I’m your mother.”
“Good to know,” I muttered, heading for the stairs again. I’d learned over the course of my teenage years the less I dealt with my parents the more I seemed to like them. But I could tell that wouldn’t be a good long-term remedy.
“Ham! Pick up your lizard before you go, please. And make sure he stays in your room. I wouldn’t want Adam frightened first thing in the morning. His nanny will be coming over tomorrow, and we don’t need another reason for her to hesitate.”
“Why is she coming here tomorrow?” I scrunched up my face at the thought of Mrs. Weatherby, Adam’s nanny. She was a pill. Who needed to take a lot of pills.
After a moment of careful thinking, Cheryl pursed her lips and said, “After the attack at the high school tonight, I thought it best for you and your brother to stay here with someone tomorrow. It would be safer.”
“What?” I knew school was canceled, but I was not just going to willingly stay here. I had several more attractive offers to either make or consider – Jason’s, Mikey’s, maybe even Gwen’s house.
It was the wrong thing to say to Cheryl. She barked back at me. “Hamilton! Do you know how many people were taken to the hospital? Do you know how many are being quarantined tonight? Your father will be stuck at work for the whole weekend, and the police have nothing on the attackers! Nothing! It’s too dangerous. Now get your lizard and get to bed.” And with that, she left me alone in the living room.
Years later, I would be astounded at myself for not being more worried about the crew of monsters and their potential to harm people. I supposed it was largely due to my mother’s uber-concern for the situation; my mother was completely backwards in her thinking, and I disagreed with her on practically everything as a teenager.
I walked over to the couch. “Elysian, what were you thinking?” I mumbled.
The glowing dark eyes narrowed. “If you hadn’t kicked me out of your room, I wouldn’t have been seen.”
“My room is upstairs,” I shot back.
“You kicked me out!”
“Shut up already!”
There was a slight noise behind us; I looked over to see Adam with an unusual expression on his young face.
“Er… hi there, Adam,” I waved.
“Hammonton,” Adam smiled shyly. He took a cautious step closer, hugging his organic-cotton stuffed panda bear.
I backed away. “Good night!” I called, turning around and breaking into a run.
Safe in my room, dragon clutched in my fist, I exhaled. Whew. That was close. Adam didn’t say a lot, but it only took one instance to make a mess of an already-confusing situation. br />
Elysian transformed back into his smaller form as he jumped up on the bed. “I didn’t know you had a brother.”
“Yeah, he’s only three. Doesn’t talk too much. Cheryl and Mark think he’s autistic or overly shy or something.”
Elysian huffed. “There’s nothing wrong with him. He’s just intuitive.”
“What do you mean by that?” I asked, putting my skeptical face back on.
“Children sense things older people don’t. I think he knows I’m not just some ‘rare lizard.’”
“Hey, I couldn’t think of anything else to call you,” I replied defensively. I was suddenly very tired. Tired and tired of. This whole mess tonight had me upset and confused and half-crazy. I still wasn’t done processing it all. “I hope you don’t snore,” was all I said to the lizard before slumping over.
“A mansion this size is big enough for both of us,” Elysian grumbled as he curled up on the edge of the bed.
It’s so hard, even as this small animal-thing was drifting off to sleep in front of me, to believe this dragon was for real. For really real.
I looked up at the ceiling as thoughts about Gwen and the events of the evening swirled around me. Haunting me. Taunting me. Terrorizing me.
While there had to be a reasonable explanation for it all, there were none that came to me. And without an explanation, it was just better to ignore it. That usually worked.
But I was getting tired of running from all of these things. And I feared the day when I would be devoured alive by the truth I refused to acknowledge.
It was this fear that ripped through me now, as I drifted off, hoping to dream. But for all my exhaustion, I couldn’t find the peace of sleep.
I scrunched up my face, trying to block it all out.
The girl who saved me tonight jumped into my head. Starry Knight.
She… well, I didn’t like her, I knew, but there was something about her I just didn’t get. “Elysian?” I asked, sitting up. “Elysian, who was that girl with the bow and arrow and wings and stuff?”
When the tiny dragon just snarled sleepily, I rolled my eyes in exasperation. But I let the picture of her settle into my mind. I decided I’d much rather think of her than the fear swiping at me.