Unfamiliar Territory
Chapter 6: Sick Leave

The next few weeks were plagued by bad events.

Yet another student went missing, with no sign of their Hero. Mouse and I soon started to walk together to school every morning, which at first made me feel safer. Though, it didn’t take long for that security to be ripped away and then replaced with the hair rising feeling of eyes watching my every move. Mouse never once mentioned feeling the same. I couldn’t decide if it was the dog or Kat and Mutt.

Mouse would always meet me in front of my house on the way to school and, on the way back, she would walk past it. She had mentioned we lived close, but I never once saw her enter any of the houses near me. Even when I would spy on her through my window as she left, she would just keep walking down the sidewalk until I could not see her any longer. Several times I would try to bring up her family, but...

“There isn’t much to say.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean there isn’t much I want to say, you know? Can we talk about something else, please?”

It was a hot topic, to be sure. Once you got her going, she could usually talk a lot about a lot of things. She wasn’t just a big buff on medieval stories; she read action, science fiction, romance. Anything she could get her hands on.

“Books are a great escape,” she said once during lunch, an open book in her lap. “It’s so easy to get lost in their worlds, if the book is good enough, of course. Life can be pretty rough sometimes, you know? Characters in a story can have a rough time of it, too. And, if it’s a good book, most do. But its different reading about someone else having it rough than having it rough yourself. It’s that outside perspective. If they were real people, I could tell them that it won’t be so bad. That, if they are in a good story, things will get better. I can’t always tell myself that. Real life isn’t like the life you replace in story books.”

It was the closest I could get to knowing what her life was like. The life I couldn’t see. It didn’t seem much better than the one she led in school. She only seemed happy when she was talking with me. Every time I would see her in class or in the hallway, she was the Mouse I knew before. Quiet, withdrawn, and blending into the scenery. Easy to forget that she was even there at all.

That’s why she needed us. That’s why I was doing this. That’s why it was so easy to smile and laugh with her despite the gut wrenching feeling. Despite the eyes always watching us.

Then, when I got home near the end of the week, I opened my bag and saw the hat Kat made was gone.

I pulled everything out of it, I even turned the bag upside down and shook it, but it wasn’t there.

How could it not be there? What had I done?

My room was bare, most of my belongings still in boxes, but I searched in every nook, every corner, under the bed, and behind the curtains. I shook every piece of clothing, dug through every drawer. It was nearing the middle of the night when I had to give up.

It wasn’t here. I had lost it. I lost it. Kat’s hat was gone.

It was my fault. My fault.

I didn’t sleep. As soon as light peered in through the window, I was gone. I went through the path I always took to school, looking through bushes and up into the tree limbs. I had to stop when I got closer to school and other students started to join me on the path. Had that much time already past?

Some were giving me strange, suspicious looks. If I wasn’t careful, they might start another rumor. The freak thing that’s searching frantically for some other freak thing that’s dear to him. Something like that. Kat was smart, she would piece it together. She would discover the truth.

Mutt wasn’t in class again. I made a mental note to think up some lie when I apologized to Mouse for missing our morning walk.

I tried looking all around me during and between classes, but I would only see more curious glances. More sly grins. Whispers in ears.

“Aw, look, it misses it’s little freak.”

“Ew, it’s all pale and sweaty. What do you think is wrong with it?”

“Just make sure you don’t touch it!”

Laughter. It didn’t matter what I did. They would get what they wanted. Their rumors, their stories. Cheap jokes. Cheap laughs. They didn’t care that something was wrong. That something was breaking inside me.

I was looking around for the hat down a hall during lunch when it happened again. Someone tripped me.

I stumbled. Everyone laughed.

“What’s the matter, not gonna run and cry again?”

I looked down at my reflection in the floor. Sick, pale, sad, and alone.

What was wrong with them? What did I ever do to—

Someone shoved me. My shoulder hit the lockers. It hurt.

“What are you gonna do, huh? Your freaks aren’t here to—!”

A slam against metal rang out through the long hallway—silencing every laugh, every whisper. He didn’t move at first. Curly brown hair, dark eyes, smell of cigarettes on his clothes. He looked down at my hands that held the straps of his bag—the hands that kept him pinned to the lockers.

When voices started up again, he looked around, nervous—worrying about what this was doing to his image, no doubt.

He put a hand on my shoulder—tried to push me off him. “Let me go, fr—”

I slammed him again. The lockers shook. The voices stopped. His grip on my shoulder loosened as his brown eyes grew wider. I looked deep into those eyes until I knew I was the only one he saw.

“Shut-up.”

His mouth was open, but he did not speak. I let him go and he sank to the floor. He was pale now, like I was.

He kept his eyes on the ground when I passed him.

No one looked my way as I continued down the hall.

No one said a word.

I stepped outside, to the stairs where Mouse and I now always ate our lunch. Cold wind blew against me as I rushed over to the railing. I leaned over, coughed, gagged, and threw up.

My legs shook. I could almost not stand back up. I nearly fell down the stairs as I tried walking down them. When I reached the frosted grass, I was on my knees and had to keep my hands on the ground. My entire body shook. I wanted to throw up again, but there was nothing left inside me.

Eventually, I stood back up. My head felt like it would split open and everything was black and white, as if there had been a sudden snowfall. Something foul reached my nose, like someone had thrown up nearby. Moving my legs was tiring. They felt weighted down, like stone, but I had to get away from that smell. I moved around the building, but there was no way I was going to make it up those stairs.

There were tall, dark shapes that stood out against a blinding white background. I could not tell what they were, but they looked sturdy. Maybe enough to hold my great weight.

Whether or not they could didn’t much matter. I was on the ground again when I reached the first one. I lay against it. It was rough, jagged, but held firm. I closed my eyes and sighed as my head lightened. Light enough to float away.

I needed to escape for awhile.

I awoke to someone prodding my shoulder. The colors were back. Yellow school, brown trees, brown grass, red jacket, red glove, green eyes.

Green eyes...

Kat was squatting in front of me, giving me a dirty look. She poked my chest. “You must think you’re pretty funny, turning the tables like this,” she said.

“Sorry.” I scooted away from the tree. “I thought maybe you weren’t here today.”

“Club stuff keeps you pretty busy,” she said, sitting down where I had been. “You’ll get the idea once you’re done wooing Mouse.”

“Can’t wait.” I pulled my knees up to my face and rested my head against them. I could fall back asleep if she just kept quiet for a few more seconds...

“So, how is it going?”

“My day?” I mumbled. I kept my face pressed against my knees.

“No, wooing Mouse. I’ve been hearing promising things.”

“Hearing, huh?” I looked up at her.

“That’s what I said.”

I had to give her credit, she had a good poker face.

“Mutt told me you and him spied on me yesterday. Sorry, but your cover’s blown.”

“Damn him!” She punched the ground with enough force to make me jump. She leveled a glare at me, like I was the one at fault. “It’s for your own good.”

“Really? It might surprise you, but I’m not completely clueless when it comes to women. And I don’t think you guys being there would help much if she ever shot me down.”

“It’s not that,” she said. I waited for her to go on, but she didn’t seem inclined to. She even started to dig around in her backpack, like she was done with the conversation.

“Then what is it?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Way too late for that.”

She pulled out her sketchpad and a pencil case. It was the same case from the first time I went with them to the graveyard. For some reason, seeing it made me even angrier.

I gritted my teeth. “And what’s with that? You guys always seem to avoid giving straight answers, or no answers at all. Ever since you asked me to join your club I feel like I’ve been kept in the dark while at the same time expected to jump through hoops based on trust. I know you must think I’m really grateful for letting me be a part of your club, but I could make other friends if I wanted. You and Mr. Mallard and everyone else can’t expect me to do something like ‘woo a girl’ and go along with it just because I want to be your friend.”

“Really?”

She was taunting me. I knew she was taunting me.

“Really,” I said through gritted teeth.

She smiled, even chuckled for the first time ever. “So, the fox has fangs after all.”

“The fox is also getting pretty sick of being jerked around.”

She laughed. It was a different sort of laugh than Mouse’s. She didn’t hold it in as she let her head fall back against the tree.

My chest started to ache. I almost smiled. I bit the inside of my cheek instead. Stay focused. Stay focused damn you!

“Look, all I’m saying is, if you guys want me to hang around I need to know more about what’s going on.”

“I get that.” She brought her head back up and her smile was gone. She opened her sketch pad and flipped to a blank page. “I really do. I’ll admit that I was having a bit of fun ‘jerking you around’ as you put it, but we were planning on letting you know everything when the time came. I promise.”

“Not good enough.” I folded my arms to help better showcase my stance.

She sighed, but before I could get more into it she trapped me again with the green eyes I had been purposefully trying to avoid. “If you bring Mouse back to us I promise I will tell you everything, even if Mr. Mallard was planning on telling you later.”

I bit my lip. I dug my nails into my arms. There was more I wanted to say...wasn’t there? But her eyes. Those brilliant green eyes. I was drowning again and there was no escape.

“Alright, fine. As long as you promise.” I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath. I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to open them again. “Damn your eyes.”

“My eyes?”

No. Oh no. No no no no no no no.

My own eyes flew open. Kat was raising a brow, her thin lips curved into a confused frown. Why? Why couldn’t today end? Why couldn’t the world end?

I stood up and almost fell back as the blood rushed down my body. I kept my feet and turned around. “Nothing. I have to go—forgot I had something to do. Talk to you later.”

Not smooth. Exact opposite of smooth.

I struggled to walk in a straight line away from her—my legs still trying to get feeling back. The grass crunched loudly under each step. The walk back to the school seemed ridiculously far away.

I could still feel her eyes on my back.

Why was I even outside?

Icy wind tickled, then numbed, my ears.

Why hadn’t I worn...?

Shit. Dammit. Did she notice? Did she wonder why I wasn’t wearing it? No, no, she knows it’s because Mouse might see. But what if she had asked where I was keeping it? What if she wanted to see it? Could I lie to her? If I saw her eyes, I couldn’t.

I couldn’t...I can’t...

It was abnormally quiet throughout the last few classes. I could still feel them watching me, but there were no taunts, not even whispers. What had happened? Had Kat set them straight again?

Mouse was missing from both of the classes we had together. Honestly, it was a bit of a relief. There was no telling what I would have done if she asked if I was okay again. What I might’ve said.

I was walking towards the front doors of school, both looking forward to and dreading the solitary walk home, when a voice called out from behind me: “Hey, Foxy!”

I turned around to see Mutt running over. Was there ever a time he wasn’t running? His smile started off big but progressively got smaller as he neared me until he was standing there watching me with a frown.

“You look awful.”

“Thanks, good to see you too,” I grumbled.

“Are you okay?”

No.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

His smile came back almost immediately. Was he really that easy?

“Are you busy?”

Busy feeling like I’m about to kill over at any moment.

“No, but I was just about to—”

“Great!” He grabbed my wrist and proceeded to lead me back through the school. He was practically dragging me as my body almost instinctively resisted going back into the building.

“Think it’d be cool if I ask where we are going?” I asked. I attempted to get him to let go, but my arms were noodles. It took nearly all my concentration to put one foot in front of the other.

“It’d be super cool!” he said.

Deep breaths, Alex. Deep breaths.

“Mutt, where are we going?”

“To the track field!” he cheered. His energy was going to make me sicker. He even started to pick up his pace and I nearly fell over trying to keep up.

“Mutt...”

Mutt didn’t seem to hear me as we exited through the back of the school and walked towards the field. Maybe he did hear me, but was ignoring me. I wouldn’t put it past him. Not even Mutt. He strung me along just like everyone else. It wasn’t any different; he just did it with a clueless attitude and smile.

“Mu...”

I couldn’t get the words out. My eyes were getting heavy and darkness was creeping in. Maybe it was better he caught me before I left. I would probably be passed out on the sidewalk by now if it wasn’t for him. What a great guy.

We went outside. We passed Kat’s tree. The tree where I snapped at her like a child. The tree where I cursed her eyes out-loud.

I was better off on that sidewalk. Damn you, Mutt. This is all your fault.

“We’re almost there!” the bastard said.

I saw Stallion first. He was running on the track as we arrived. He was shirtless and looked to have some sort of monstrous weight tied to his waist that he was dragging across the ground as he ran. While he was sweating profusely, he didn’t seem to mind it much. He even waved and smiled at us as he ran past. Mutt waved back while I blinked. He was a monster like everyone said he was. He could eat them all alive if he wanted to.

Mutt was leading me to the far side of the track field, in the direction of the bleachers. There, against the orange rays of the sinking sun, someone was performing stunts on a couple of raised bars that would put some gymnasts to shame. A dark shadow dancing and flipping and swinging.

Had I fallen asleep again? Was this one of those fever dreams?

As we grew closer and closer to the twirling figure, the shadows moved. The fading light hit her skin, her face, and her eyes. I don’t know why I was surprised, but my heartbeat slowed and my breathing shallowed. It was Kat. Of course it was Kat.

She was wearing some sort of leotard and the long parts of her hair were tied back. She seemed lost in her own world as she spun around on the bars, not acknowledging Mutt or me as we approached and walked right past her.

She was doing things I didn’t think a human capable of as she balanced on one arm, caught herself mid spin with her knees, and generally spun around at a speed which made me dizzy just watching her. I didn’t realize Mutt stopped walking until I nearly ran into him.

“Ah, good, you managed to replace our Foxy in time,” Mr. Mallard said. He was sitting in the grass, amongst the now all too familiar fiery tea set. “But my, don’t you look terrible.”

“Are they training for the Olympics or something?” I asked.

“Goodness, no,” Mr. Mallard said with a chuckle as he began to pour some tea into a cup. “Now come, sit, please. You need to refresh yourself.”

“I don’t know how much tea will help with my lack of sleep,” I said, but sat across from him nonetheless.

“This tea is special,” he assured.

Mutt sat down next to me, nodding in agreement with him. “Yup, super special. Drink it, Foxy, and you’ll be all better!”

Mr. Mallard held the cup out to me. I prepared myself to turn him down. I brought my hands up to wave him off.

And, instead, those hands reached out and took the cup from Mr. Mallard and brought it up to my lips. The tea was as hot as ever, but as it burned my insides my vision cleared, my head felt lighter, and my body warmed. The fog was lifted.

I looked down into the empty mug then back up at Mr. Mallard and Mutt. “Did you guys put drugs in this?”

They laughed.

What was wrong with them? What was wrong with me? Mr. Mallard took the cup from me. My hands were shaking. I tried to close them, but they didn’t stop.

“So, Foxy, would you like to help Mutt out with his training today?”

“Oh, awesome, really?!” Mutt exclaimed before I could answer. He looked between us with wide, wild eyes.

“So, all this is training?” I asked, placing my shaking hands in my lap. My knee started to bounce against the ground in their stead.

He didn’t say anything. Mutt kept his eyes to the ground. I gripped my knees. “Will you not tell me because you don’t trust me?”

Silence.

I shouldn’t be here. Talking and drinking strange tea with them. What in the world were they doing all this for that they had to worry about who they can trust to tell it to? I couldn’t see Mr. Mallard’s eyes from the glare of the setting sun, but I could tell that he was no longer smiling.

“I assure you, Foxy, I am not having my students doing anything that would get them into trouble with the school. Or with the law, for that matter. I will tell you this much; Mutt, Kat, and Stallion are indeed training. They are honing their bodies towards a certain goal, to reach a certain...level. Any more than that and I’m afraid I would be giving away too much. Do know that, when Mouse has rejoined us, you too will be honing yourself in a similar fashion.”

Kat was still performing dangerous and intricate flips. Stallion was still going strong with a weight that looked heavier than three of me. When I looked back to Mr. Mallard, the glare was gone and I could plainly see his half-closed eyes and his gentle smile returning. “I can see your hesitation, but do not fret. I will not expect you to jump through hoops, literal or otherwise, the moment we begin your training. This game I wish for you to play with Mutt will be a good idea of what you can expect.”

My body was so warm. Both my knees were bouncing. I wanted to move, feel my blood flow, and maybe even get these swarming questions out of my head for awhile. It would be much better than sitting here wishing that I wasn’t sitting here.

So, I tilted my head and appeared to be interested. “A game?”