After surviving an unexpected and brutal encounter with a monster, a young man is drawn into the world of the Val Kyr.

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Lunch in the school cafeteria was always loud and crowded, but I’d long since learned how to tune out most of the noise. I sat in the area of the cafeteria that was usually reserved for seniors like me, though I was alone at the end of a table, silently the latest Dresden book on my Kindle. You’ve got to like a guy whose solution to the zombie apocalypse was to create his own zombie dinosaur.

I was off to the side by myself, not because I was one of those outcast loners who had no friends, but because I enjoyed reading during lunch and I couldn’t do that while people talked to me. As far as I was concerned, the entire lunch period existed for the purpose of giving students a mental break, and this was simply how I preferred to use mine.

Of course, my solitude didn’t last for long as I saw my girlfriend Julie Rosewald walking in my direction with a tray of food. She was short and a little chubby, but not enough to be called fat, and she had on a pair of glasses that she couldn’t see without. But in spite of not looking like some stereotypical cheerleader, I rather would have been dating her than any other girl in school. She was smart, funny, and best of all, the two of us just clicked.

Julie and I first met back in junior high, when her family had just moved to town and she was the new kid in school. One day at lunch, she’d seen me reading a comic book in the cafeteria, so she’d sat down beside me and started a conversation about all things geeky. The two of us had immediately become friends and we’d eventually started dating as well.

“Hey Mike,” Julie greeted me with a broad grin, sitting down right across from me. “Have you come up with any ideas yet?”

I turned off my Kindle in order to give Julie my full attention. “I was thinking maybe Mario and Princes Peach.”

Julie gave me a thoughtful look and then shook her head. “No, you’re tall and thin…more like Luigi. And Peach isn’t a great match for Luigi, so I could go as Princess Daisy instead.”

“Good idea,” I agreed, grinning as I thought about how much fun the two of us would have making those costumes.

For the last week, Julie and I had been trying to decide what costumes we wanted to make for the next convention we went to. The two of us liked to cosplay, and we always had a lot of fun doing so. During the last convention, I’d gone dressed up as Waldo while she went as Carmen Sandiego. We took pictures of each other in costume, then went our separate ways and began showing the pictures off to people around the convention, asking everyone if they’d seen the other. We’d gotten some good laughs out of that one.

“I’d also considered Harry Pottery and Hermione,” I told Julie. “But those ones have just been too overdone.”

Julie nodded agreement. “Besides, if I was going as Hermione, you’d have to go as Ron instead…” We both chuckled at that.

“Maybe for the next convention,” I told her.

Julie and I talked for a little longer, but then I suddenly became aware of a large figure looming up behind me. I glanced back and saw Bufford ‘Buff’ Grissom, the biggest and meanest looking guy in school, not to mention a star player on both the school football and wrestling teams.

“I’ve got something for you,” Buff stated, looking more than a little intimidating. “Lunch money.”

With that, Buff handed me a ten dollar bill. Last week, he’d been a bit short on cash so I’d lent him a little to buy lunch. The guy had a big appetite, so he definitely appreciated that.

“Thanks for the loan,” he told me with a grin that almost looked threatening. In spite of his brutish appearance, Buff was actually a pretty nice guy…at least to anyone who wasn’t facing him across the football field.

“No problem,” I told him with a shrug. “By the way, how’s your brother doing?”

“Nicky?” Buff asked? Then he grinned, “The nerdy little punk just got accepted to MIT…at fifteen. I tell you, he’s going to be the next Bill Gates.” There was a clear note of pride in his voice at that.

Buff gave me a friendly slap on the shoulder, nearly hard enough to bruise me, then he continued on his way. Julie just chuckled, and when I gave her a curious look, she said, “I was just thinking that we should do a Sin City cosplay sometime. We can ask Buff to come with us as Marv.”

I nodded at that, agreeing that Buff would probably make a great Marv. After that, we returned to the topic of our own costumes, which is what we spent the rest of the lunch period talking about. However, Julie seemed just a little distracted and not into it as much as she usually was. I noticed that, but didn’t really give it much thought.

Several hours later, I was sitting in my final class of the day…history. History was a subject that I’d always been fond of, mostly because of how different time periods were often used as part of the background of my favorite stories. Quite often during this class, my mind would wander and I’d come up with story ideas for things that could occur in that kind of setting.

Over the last two weeks, history had been even more interesting than usual, due entirely to the presence of Ms. Lindrell, the substitute teacher who’d taken over for Mrs. Bonner. Ms. Lindrell was one of those teachers that just couldn’t be ignored, especially by the male students. She was tall...probably about 6 foot 2, though she always wore heels as well, making her tower over nearly everyone in class. And of course, she was gorgeous looking, with long blonde hair and a body that made every boy drool and every girl jealous. Not only did she have a killer figure, and a rack that threatened to burst right out of her clothes, but from what I could see, she also looked really fit…like some kind of athlete or fitness model.

Ms. Lindrell slowly looked around the classroom as she lectured, her gaze settling on Julie for a moment. Julie was sitting on the other side of the classroom for me, and for some reason, she seemed to be a favorite target of attention from the substitute. For some reason, Ms. Lindrell seemed to have taken a liking to Julie, not that I could blame her. Julie was a very nice person.

A few seconds later, Ms. Lindrell turned her attention to me, the other student who she seemed to pay an inordinate amount of attention to. However, unlike with Julie, she seemed to dislike me for some inexplicable reason.

“Michael,” Ms. Lindrell called on me, giving me a flat look at the same time. “What year was this?”

I let out a sigh, not at all surprised that she’d called on me. Ms. Lindrell seemed to enjoy calling me out in class when she didn’t think I was paying attention to her lecture, or when she thought I wouldn’t know the answer. Because of that, I’ve made sure to keep up with my reading assignments, just so I wouldn’t be embarrassed again like I had been the first couple times.

“Nineteen fourteen,” I answered, thankful that I was able to actually remember that. I usually couldn’t remember exact dates of events.

“Correct,” she responded, almost seeming disappointed that she hadn’t caught me with another wrong answer. She gave me a sour look, then continued with her lecture.

When class was over, I joined up with Julie at the door. She still seemed a bit distracted, so I decided to get her attention with something I knew she liked, her favorite anime series. I was quite familiar with it since she liked making me watch it with her.

“You know,” I told Julie, “I was thinking about your suggestion that we make up Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask costumes…” Until now, I’ve been hesitant to go quite that cheesy, but I knew that she’d be happy if I agreed to it. “I figure, maybe we could do that the next convention…after this one.”

“That sounds great,” Julie told me, grinning excitedly for a moment before her expression turned slightly sad. Then with what was obviously a forced smile, she said, “I can’t wait.”

I certainly wasn’t an expert on girls, but I knew Julie well enough to know that something was wrong. Unfortunately, I had absolutely no idea of what it was or what I could do about it. That just made me feel frustrated.

Just then, Ms. Lindrell called out, “Julie, if I could have a word with you in private…”

“Sure,” Julie responded, giving me an apologetic look before hurrying over to the teacher.

Ms. Lindrell and Julie went off to the corner and talked where I couldn’t hear them, but they both looked pretty serious. Julie quickly glanced at me, but her expression looked almost guilty. I frowned, wondering what was going on. When they finished talking and Julie came back towards me, she seemed to be in a grim mood but didn’t want to talk about it.

We walked to the front of the school together, neither of us really saying a word. It was obvious that Julie was distracted by something, and it had only become more obvious after her talk with Ms. Lindrell. I was curious and worried, but also uncomfortable. Though Julie was both my best friend and girlfriend, I didn’t want to come across as overbearing and pushy by demanding to know what was going on.

As we climbed onto our bus, I finally asked my girlfriend, “Are you okay?”

Julie hesitated a moment, then said, “Yes…no…” She paused for a moment before adding, “I don’t really want to talk about it right now.”

“Okay,” I said with a frown, not pressing the issue.

After several minutes, Julie let out a loud sigh and finally said, “I don’t know what to do.”

“What do you mean?” I asked carefully.

Julie hesitated a moment, then said, “I’ve been offered an opportunity…a once in a lifetime opportunity. I mean, this is the kind of thing I’ve been dreaming of for my whole life…but…” She cut of at that, giving me an odd look.

“An opportunity?” I asked, wondering what she meant. Then it dawned on me. Both of us would be graduating from high school in just a few months, and Julie had already been sending out some college applications. “You got accepted to one of those colleges…”

“Sort of,” she answered with a forced smile and adjusted her glasses, which she tended to do when she was nervous.

“Well, that’s great,” I told her with a grin. “I know how much you’ve been wanting that…”

“You don’t understand,” Julie blurted out. “It’s everything I’ve ever dreamed of but… But there’s a price…”

I was definitely getting worried, especially with the odd way Julie was behaving. It took a bit of effort to keep my voice steady as I asked, “What are you talking about? I’m sure your family would help pay for it…”

Julie frowned and stared out the bus window at the passing scenery. Then she looked back at me and carefully said, “I’d have to leave home…and I’d probably never get to see you or my family again.” I gasped at that and Julie winced. After a few seconds, she explained, “It’s like a foreign exchange program, for a very specialized trade school. I’ve been told that it’s really far away and completely isolated.”

I stared at Julie in silence, trying to wrap my head around what she’d said. The whole thing seemed a bit questionable, so I pointed out, “It sounds a bit like a cult.” I gulped, then demanded, “You’re not running off to join some cult, are you?”

“No, it’s nothing like that,” Julie quickly assured me, turning bright red. “And I haven’t even decided if I’ll go yet…”

“Where is this place?” I asked her, trying not to sound too demanding. “I mean, what kind of school is this?”

“There’s sort of a…non-disclosure agreement,” Julie told me with a forced smile. “I’m not allowed to talk about it.”

“So it is a cult,” I said with a long sigh, now even more worried about Julie.

“It’s not a cult,” she assured me, though she didn’t look completely certain. However, her expression brightened quite a bit as she explained, “But it is an opportunity…a chance to do something amazing with my life. I REALLY want to do this…but…”

“But you’d have to leave home,” I said quietly, mentally adding, ‘and me’.

“Yeah,” Julie responded, then quickly assured me, “But I still haven’t decided.”

I stared at Julie for a moment, remembering her odd private conversation with Ms. Lindrell. I was sure that this had something to do with the substitute teacher, but I wasn’t really sure what. And though I really wanted to warn Julie away from this, to tell her not to leave me, I’d seen the look on her face a moment ago when she’d talked about doing something amazing with her life.

“If…if this is really a once in a lifetime opportunity,” I finally told her, trying to keep my voice steady. “You need to go for it.”

“Really?” Julie asked me in surprise.

I gave her a forced smile. “Sure. I mean, that kind of thing doesn’t come along every day. Just…be careful. Make sure that you know what you’re getting into first.”

Julie gave me a big hug and a kiss on my cheek. “Thank you,” she told me. Then as the bus came to a halt at her bus stop, she got up and said, “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

By the time I got home a mere fifteen minutes later, I was feeling depressed at the idea of Julie leaving me to go off to some overseas school. I was worried as well, hoping that I hadn’t just talked her into joining a cult or something. If she did and something happened to her, I didn’t know if I’d ever forgive myself.

I went into the house, not at all surprised to find my dad stretched out on the recliner with a beer in hand while he watched TV. He’d taken off his prosthetic leg, so I could see the stump which ended right above where his knee had been. I quickly averted my eyes, not wanting to see that, nor wanting him to see me looking at it.

Dad looked up at me and scowled. “You going to work tonight?”

“Not tonight,” I answered, careful to keep my voice even and without inflection.

I had a part time job flipping burgers, which I absolutely hated. However, Dad had been out of work for two years now and his unemployment and disability weren’t enough to cover all the bills. I did what I could to help out, though unfortunately, I was sure that my dad resented me a bit for having a job while he didn’t.

“Good,” Dad said with a grunt, turning his attention back to the TV. “You can cook dinner.”

“Sure,” I responded, since that would have been a given anyway.

I carefully avoided looking at my dad, knowing the man he’d once been and feeling sad over what he’d become. Of course, I didn’t remember the time when he’d actually been an Army Ranger since his accident had occurred back when I’d only been a toddler. However, I knew that even though he didn’t talk about it, he was ashamed that he hadn’t lost his leg while serving his country…but as the result of an ordinary drunk driver.

My dad blamed that accident for everything that was wrong in his life, and I could understand why. After he’d lost his leg, he’d also lost his military career. Shortly after that, my mom had up and left him…left us. For a long time, he continued to do the best he could, teaching me how to hunt and generally trying to be a good father, but then the economy had gone bad and he’d lost a series of jobs, one after the other. It had been two years since the last time he’d had a steady job and this had really taken a toll on him.

Suddenly, Dad snarled at me, “Don’t you dare look at me with pity…”

“I wasn’t,” I protested, gulping at his rising anger.

“I was a Ranger,” he exclaimed, giving me an angry glare. “I was a God damn Ranger with the United States Army…”

“Yes sir,” I responded, trying to appease him. Over the last couple years, Dad had slowly been getting worse and worse, and though he’d never tried to attack me physically, I could see the resentment building.

“I served my country,” Dad continued his rant, going on for another minute. “You have no idea what I’ve done for this country…what I’ve given up…” Then he shifted to another old topic, one that I was tired of hearing about. “You’re soft…weak. The Army can build you up…make a man of you…give you a purpose.”

While my dad was in this mood, I knew that it would be pointless to remind him that I had absolutely no interest in joining the military. I had no real idea of what I actually did want to do with my life, or even immediately after graduation, however, I was pretty sure that it had absolutely nothing to do with wearing a uniform, going on marches, or shooting people.

Once Dad was sufficiently distracted and was grumbling more to himself than me, I slipped away and into the kitchen. Since I was on tap for making dinner, I pulled some cubed venison meat out of the freezer and began to defrost it.

The venison, like the summer sausage in the fridge, were leftovers from a hunting trip that Dad had taken me on. I smiled faintly as I remembered the trip, which had probably been the last time the two of us had actually done anything together. Then after a moment, frowned and sadly shook my head, missing that version of my dad and hoping that he’d come back some day.

“Venison stew should work,” I mused, reminding myself that we had some ground venison as well, which would go pretty good in spaghetti sauce.

I got the stew prepped and in the pot, then put it on to slowly cook while I wandered back to my room, carefully avoiding my dad’s attention as I slipped through the living room. Once I was back in my room, I closed the door behind me and let out a sigh.

I sat down on my bed and pulled out my Kindle, deciding to do a little light reading before I actually had to get to my homework. At the moment, I really needed something to distract myself from what was going on, and a good book was my preferred means of distraction.

Dad’s behavior was frustrating, though it wasn’t anything new. In fact, that was one of the problems. Dad was slowly getting worse and worse the longer he was out of work, and I was growing increasingly worried over where that would lead him.

At the same time, I was also thinking about Julie and her mysterious opportunity. I worried that she might be getting involved in something hinky, but admittedly, I was actually a little jealous at the same time. Julie had been so excited about this, whatever it was, and I could only imagine how great it would be to find something that excited me like that.

“But no such luck for me,” I said with a sigh, trying to think about my own future, though I couldn’t even see a direction. After several minutes, I just shook my head and mused, “Michael Jay Sorensen…what are you going to do?”