THE JOINING: The Cycle of the Shards Book One
Chapter 32

The red, slightly rusted pick-up truck pulled to the side on the street bordering the school, and idled, smoke slightly drifting out of the exhaust. Inside, Richard Edison watched as his son, or rather the alien that was inhabiting his son’s body, unbuckled his seatbelt. Making a decision in his head, Richard unbuckled his as well.

Hearing the telltale ‘click’ of the belt detaching from the holder, Kyle looked at his father. “What’re you doing?”

“I’m not letting my son walk in to a place alone and fight some ungodly alien without help. I’m coming with you.”

Kyle’s eyes widened, and he put a hand on Richard’s arm. “That’s not necessary. I’m not going to be alone. You’ve done enough already.”

Richard blinked a few times. “Don’t you have children on your planet? Don’t you understand why I need to go? If you die, he dies.”

Kyle sighed, tired of the charade but not willing to give Critock back complete control of his body until the last moment had come. “If I die, then the entire planet likely dies. It’s going to be hard enough to stealth around in there, I can’t have an entourage with me.” He shook his head. “We do have children, Richard. I do know how you feel.” Critock’s words came easily to his mouth, though Kyle still held on.

Richard looked at his boy, still slightly unbelieving as he saw only his son’s face when he looked at him, not some alien monstrosity. “How long have you…been here?”

“I’ve been with Kyle since just before mid-day yesterday.”

Richard turned, and faced forward, ignoring the sounds of the traffic around them. “The night before…We had a fight. I’m not good at this. I’m trying, God knows I am. But I wasn’t ready for this.”

Kyle blinked back the wetness that was coming unbidden to his eyes. “Get home, Richard. Get somewhere safe. With any luck, Kyle will be home soon and this’ll all be over.”

“I just…” A single tear fell down his father’s cheek, the first time that Kyle could remember ever seeing his father cry since his mother had left. “I wanted him to know that I love him. I don’t know if he knows it and now it might be too late.”

Kyle looked at his father, and squeezed his arm. “He knows. He loves you too.” With that, he reached over and pushed the door open, and moved out of the car, closing the door behind him. As Richard fought his continuing urge to follow, Kyle marched towards the west entrance of the school, knowing that at this time of day it was most likely to be empty. As he walked, he slowly released his grip on his consciousness, allowing Critock to seep in more and more. As he reached the door and placed a hand on the handle, looking in to see the expected deserted hallway, the transformation had completed. Kyle had disappeared into the back of his mind, with no hold or control on anything any more. Instead, there was only Critock.

Claire hated the school when there was no one around. Truth be told, she wasn’t much more fond of having to be in it at any time, but something about the oppressive silence that was mixed with the slight fear of a door opening with a teacher behind it ready to scold her for being out of class at the wrong time was just tearing at her brain, and she hoped with everything she had that she’d be able to replace out just what had happened to Daniel.

She wasn’t a stalker, and she wasn’t crazy! At least that was what she kept telling herself as she peeked into the library windows, trying to locate her boyfriend. She strained her neck to see from one side of the room to the other, but with no positive results. She sighed. This was the last place she knew of that had a study hall, and where else would they have sent him since the office was apparently closed for the rest of the day. What was she going to do now? She couldn’t just go back to class. Even if she wouldn’t get in trouble, the dread and concern for his well being would eat her up for the rest of the period. No, he had to be here somewhere, if not in class, then maybe hiding out somewhere? Maybe up here? She climbed the steps of the east wing, careful to take it slow lest she be discovered, and peered over the top step.

Nothing. She could hear the sounds of people, probably other people sneaking out of class, farther down the hall and around the corner, but they weren’t coming any closer. She resumed her regular pace up the stairs and on the landing, glancing at the low rail connected to the wall, next to where the stairs met the floor. Remembering to stay away from that particular hazard, having heard the urban legends about the kids who sat on it, slipped off, and broke their neck, she quickened her pace. Maybe one of those voices was Daniel! At last!

She rounded the corner with excitement in her heart, but as she made out the faces that belonged to the loud voices, her excitement turned to dread. Facing her was Brian Boyd and his two minions, who quieted down as they noticed her sudden presence.

Travis, the minion to Brian’s left, actually gave a small wave to Claire, and she grimaced as Brian spoke to her menacingly. “Do you have a hall pass, sweetheart?”

“N—No!” She was surprised at the three of them being here, having thought that they all had been kicked out of school permanently. “What are you doing here?”

He smiled, and Claire decided she liked his teeth least of all. Had he filed them down? They seemed sharper than they should be. “Just hanging out. It’s nice and quiet here. Hoping to run into Kyle, have you seen him? Have some unfinished business with him. But if you’d like to distract us for a little while...”

Deciding to ignore the sinister overtones in his speech, she tried appealing to a sense of decency that she hoped he had. “Ew, no thank you. I’m looking for Daniel, he wasn’t in the office or study hall or…”

Brian took a step towards Claire, which caused her to take a step back and everyone else to take a step along with him to continue the appearance of an united front. “Oh, come on, what are you with that dip for! You know he used to hang with us, right? That means we have his seal of approval.” His two minions exchanged a worried look. This wasn’t what they had signed up for, but they weren’t about to risk his wrath, particularly when he was in pursuit of something.

Claire backed around the corner, feeling the warmth of the sunlight on her back as she moved away from the bullies. “He used to. He got smart.” She glanced behind her, and while she did so, Brian jerked his head to the right. Travis caught the cue quickly ran around behind her, blocking her from running off, and forcing her to stop. She started to shake slightly. “Come on, I need to replace him…”

Brian made a pained expression on his face. “You hurt me. Give me a kiss and I’ll forgive you.” Claire’s eyes widened as she realized that she couldn’t go anywhere else, and Brian’s other minion had moved alongside Travis. He continued to advance until they were interrupted by a sudden third voice coming from in front of the stairwell.

“What’s going on here!” Daniel had his book bag in his hand, staring daggers at the three bullies. Brian glanced away from Claire, allowing her the chance she needed to break into a quick run past him. If he cared, he didn’t show it, as he returned Daniel’s look with a glare of his own.

“Aw, come on, Dan! We’re just having a little fun. You don’t have any fun with us anymore.” The three of them began to advance again, this time on Daniel. For his part, he didn’t look like he had any intention to go anywhere. He carefully placed his backpack on the ground as he faced them.

“I’m tired of your brand of fun. There’s no place for that type of thing any more.”

Brian squinted at the teen, the sun shining behind him illuminating him in an odd glow. “You were worse than any of us! Just because you found Jesus or whatever the hell you did doesn’t make you any better than the rest of us.” Claire had long since reached the end of the hall, but instead of rounding the corner and heading away from the scene, she had turned around in order to watch the proceedings. How was he going to be able to take on all three of them, let alone Brian himself?

Brian continued as he drew closer to Daniel, still remaining stationary. “I was here for Kyle, but if I can’t have him, you’ll do.” He stopped right in front of his former compatriot.

Daniel just smiled in his face. “I heard the kid kicked your butt. Good for him.”

With a roar, Brian swung a fist down at Daniel. As with the day before, Brian’s style of fighting was completely lacking any type of finesse, and it was easy for Daniel to sidestep the blow. Unlike Kyle, he wasn’t going to leave this blowhard undamaged. Daniel let a jab loose, striking Brian with surprising force. He staggered back, but still on his feet. Disbelieving that for the second time in two days he was being made a fool of by kids that wouldn’t even dare look him in the eyes, the anger took him over again, and Brian charged at Daniel. Daniel, for his part, was a lot lighter than the muscle-bound brute, and quickly jumped out of his way.

As the bully went flying by, Daniel kept his focus on his target, forgetting about Brian’s two friends. The attack from Travis came from the right, but it wasn’t a punch so much as it was a push, designed to send him off balance while Brian regained his control. The push was with more force than intended, however, and in the wrong angle. Not expecting the extra attack, Daniel was sent backwards, and his feet moved back to try and keep from falling down. One of his feet caught a strap of the backpack, and because of the weight of the schoolbooks inside of the bag it held firmly. Tumbling out of control from the loss of help from one foot, the back of his legs struck the low rail next to the stairs. With the lack of balance and the speed of the fall, there was nothing that could be done to stop what happened next. Daniel fell, back first, over the rail, and down almost a full story to the hard stairs below. There was a horrible crunching sound that seemed to go on forever even though in reality it was only an instant.

There was a piercing scream of Daniel’s name from Claire as she ran towards the stairwell, terrified for her boyfriend. Brian and his two friends were frozen to the ground as they stood still, Travis’s face turning ashen. Claire ran past them, pushing the other minion out of the way, and looked down at where Daniel had fell. Her eyes widened with a confused look, but she didn’t scream. She didn’t have the capacity to put any noises with what she saw. Instead she just fainted on the spot, crumbling to the floor.

Brian looked at the passed out girl, and glanced worriedly towards the classroom doors, not wanting to involve anyone else in this. He looked angrily at Travis. “What did you do?”

“I didn’t mean to! I just pushed him down!”

“Well, he’s down.” Melissa spoke in a monotone, and Brian wasn’t sure if it was because of her usual calm demeanor or if it was because she was a psychopath. Slowly, in unison, the three of them approached the rail, looking at each other first, then looking down to see exactly what had caused Claire to pass out just from the sight.

Daniel’s eyes were open, and he was obviously conscious. There was a complete lack of blood, and as far as the look of most of his body was concerned it was as though he had simply fallen to the ground and not a full story below. It was the center of his body that demanded the attention. Two long black legs, cyndrical in appearance and extending out the full length of a human body, jutted out from the sides of Daniel’s stomach. Ending in a sharp tip, they twitched slightly, as Daniel blinked up at them. His lips crooked into a smile that if the bullies were close enough they would consider sinister.

Up above the three continued to stare, dumbfounded, as the legs seemed to fold in and around. Then suddenly they split down the center, their size halved but their utility doubled. The now four ends on the legs flipped down, bracing themselves on the ground and lifting Daniel up off of the floor. As he continued to smile, the legs moved on the stairs experimentally. Seeming to give up on the stair option, the four legs moved to the left and began to climb the wall, first touching the grey painted bricks lightly, then driving their sharp legs deep with them. Easily pulling them out and driving back in a little ahead, Daniel’s new legs pulled him completely vertical along the wall up and left again, heading straight towards the three stunned onlookers and Claire’s lifeless body.

The three yelled in unison, terrified beyond capacity for rational thought. They turned and began running as quickly as they could. Melissa didn’t make it very far as she had forgotten about Daniel’s bag, the same bag that he had tripped over, and her right foot catching it sent her crashing painfully to the ground. Looking up, she saw her two friends racing away from her as fast as they could move, forgetting about her in trying to save themselves.

Daniel leaped from the wall, landing in front of the stairs and right next to Melissa. Without saying a word, he righted himself, two of the four limbs now rearranged as arms instead of legs. He didn’t stop his momentum forward, and as he moved, he picked up Rachel by her leg. As she screamed, he flung her behind him through the air with almost supernatural strength. She flew fast, and impacted the glass window soon after. As the glass shattered, her screams stopped as her now lifeless body continued to fly through the air, arcing down and landing in the grass with a loud thump.

Travis and Brian were unaware of this, as they were still running away from the monster as fast as they could. Daniel walked quickly, and passed by a classroom door, where Mr. Bryan, finally tired of the random noises from outside that could be heard even over the special-needs students that hadn’t learned the word quiet, had flung open. As he stepped out in the hall, he was immediately met with the sight of a boy he didn’t know with monstrous appendages. The boy looked at him, made a hissing sound, and spread his limbs in a threatening display. The teacher slammed the door shut and pressed against it, worried for both his and his children’s lives.

Daniel began to jog, and then using his extra appendages, he bent over, letting his legs carry him faster through the hallway. He quickly caught up with Travis, and used one leg to pull the boy by the leg from behind. Instead of tossing him backwards where he had a good chance of survival, he reared back and slammed Travis directly into a nearby locker. Then he slammed him to the floor, and then finally flung his broken body towards Brian, who was close to rounding the corner of the hallway. The dead boy’s body collided with the bully’s, who crumpled to the ground with a loud grunt.

Brian looked up, and realized the monster was now galloping towards him. He started screaming for anyone to help him as Daniel reached him, lifting him so that they were looking face to face.

Daniel smiled, shaking his head and placing a human finger against Brian’s lips. “You know, you should have been nicer to people. I honestly thought it might have been you that was here to get me. Just another bully. How pathetic. No one will miss you.” Brian began screaming again as Daniel’s face grew louder and drew closer to him...