Forum Curses Entr’acte: Who Am I?
Chapter 1: Simply a School of Silence
“Hi. My name is Troy. Troy A…”
“TROY! GET DOWN HERE NOW!” A voice yelled from downstairs. A young boy, possibly sixteen or so, was sitting in front of a mirror, rehearsing his name like lines in a play. Today was another ordinary, normal day. He had woken up, dressed, and now was sitting where, from the start of this story, he was always sitting. He heard the shout from his mother, so picked up his bag and walked down the stairs to a dining room. At one side of the room there was a cabinet containing delicate looking plates, a few bottles of wine and some glasses. The table stood perpendicular to a large window overlooking a street, on which the other side was obscured by a tall bush. The table had three blue placemats set along with a selection of spoons.
A woman with brown hair, his mother, was holding a bowl of cereal, and placed it on the table.
“There you go now, hurry up, you don’t want to be late for school.”
The boy smiled and sat down. He picked up his spoon and was about to take some cereal from the bowl.
“Troy, what are you doing!”
Both him and his father turned to look. Troy was holding a clear plastic salt shaker in his hand, hovering it above the cereal.
“Oh darling, you must be tired.” The salt was taken out of Troy’s hand.
His father was also called Troy. It was in the family - an unspoken tradition. His father was called Troy. His grandfather was called Troy. His great grandfather was Troy, and his great great grandfather was Troy. It was some sort of cruel joke. He picked up his spoon. Troy wasn’t even such a good name, it was dull, made his signature just plain awkward, and didn’t fit. He picked up his spoon and sighed.
School today…
He picked up his spoon and took a mouthful of cereal. Dry.
He picked up his spoon.
He reached for another mouthful, only to realise his spoon was on the table.
Huh.
Nevermind. There wasn’t time for this, he shovelled the rest of the cereal into his mouth, waved goodbye to his parents, and walked out of his house with his bag and began the one kilometre walk to his school. The day was cool, gentle. The skyline of the Eleventh, capital of the Nyx District, was clear. Troy walked carefully past a large crater of rubble where a wall had collapsed from a bomb, many many years ago.
He paused next to a road, looked both ways, and began to cross.
A truck swerved past his face, and Troy fell backwards in the rush of wind. It appeared to have appeared from nowhere. He looked towards the fast disappearing truck, which was a dirty white. On the back of it was a dark imprint of what looked like a person, just a black silhouette.
“Troy! Are you alright?” With arms wrapped around him in a tight embrace, a girl about his age, slightly shorter, and with lighter hair - pulled him further back from the road.
“Serena? What are you doing here?”
“Saving your life, you almost got killed, idiot.”
She lightly punched him in the arm before embracing him again.
“I… I didn’t see it coming. It wasn’t there when I looked!”
Serena took his hand and shook her head. “Clearly you’re tired. Come on, let’s get to school.”
Together, they walked the rest of the distance to their school.
The largest education establishment in the Eleventh, Odysseus Academy, was a large, round building with three floors. The entranceway was a large arched structure in the form of an abstract wooden sculpture where wood loops curved up and entwined like branches.
There was not another person in sight within the school, just empty, long corridors in either direction. “Do you… think we’re late?” Asked Serena. Troy nodded and they rushed off together to the second floor.
The wall of the classroom was lazily painted a sickening orange, and a crumpled periodic table blue-tacked to it. Four rows of high desks made of black plastic and metal lined the room, all facing towards a television screen at the front behind a desk covered with paper. On the desk was a gold plaque, labelled ‘Dr. N.T. H. Mahn.’ In all but four seats behind these desks were exhausted looking students, mindlessly talking or daydreaming. At the front of the room, a tall man with greying hair was sitting at the desk, writing something on a notepad. He looked up as Troy and Serena entered the room. “Corner, Maudite. Why are you late?”
“I…”
“Troy decided to almost get hit by a truck today, sorry Sir.”
Dr Mahn rolled his eyes. “Sit down, both of you. And Troy, I expect that homework, third period.”
“Yes… Sir.” Troy turned towards Serena. “Help.”
Serena laughed and sat on her seat. “I’m not in your chemistry class, sorry Troy.”
He sighed and sat down, pulling out a piece of paper. No time to start like the present. Just hope that Dr. Mahn doesn’t notice.
The paper was creased from being in his bag, and was plain except for some scribbles on one corner, underneath were a few words - reading ‘Hi there Troy.’
He looked around, expecting some giggles, some bad prank. Nothing. Nobody was even looking at him. Alright. He took out a pen and looked back down at the paper.
‘Stop looking, you won’t find anything.’
As far as he knew, that was not written there before. Great, magic paper - exactly what he needed. Pressing the pen to the page, so a blot of ink appeared, he slowly wrote ‘What’s this? Who’s messing with me here?’
A swirl of ink formed below, twisting and turning into a star, a hexagon, twisting helix shapes which bounced about the page and formed together into the words. ‘Nobody.’
Troy shivered and pinched his left hand. It hurt.
The ink mixed together into a single spot, reforming clearly into a request. ‘Why don’t we be friends, I’m Tavish, by the way.’
Troy picked up his pen, dropped it, picked it up again, picked it up again, picked it up again, picked it up again. He touched the point of it to the page, as the message written before disappeared. ‘No’
The answer came soon enough - ‘Bad luck. We’re already friends.’
Troy dropped his pen. Serena looked over. “Hey? Are you alright?”
Troy nodded. “Mhm… fine… just trying to do my homework.”
“Well you haven’t done much.” She gestured at the blank paper. “
The bell rang.
“Too late now.” She smiled. “Come on, we can do it at break.”
The history classroom had a smell like old curtains, all the windows were covered with blinds causing the room to only be lit by a few fluorescent lights, as the rest refused to turn on no matter how many times the switch was pressed. The room itself was furnished with old, decrepit desks and cheap plastic chairs. A map was plastered to the wall along with laminated cards stating the definitions of “monarchy” and “dictatorship”
“Good morning class.”
The history teacher was an old, scarred man with grey/white hair, he slouched over his desk with an exhausted look in his eyes.
“Good morning Mr Hall.” The class replied in the ever-monotone tone.
“Today we are learning about Guapo’s victory in the North Europe Conflict of twenty-fourteen. As you all know by now, Guapo was founded during the seventeenth century near the Venetian Lagoon. After the Second World War, Guapo began invading further south in what used to be Italy. In the nineteen-seventies, their capital of Guapo City, formerly Venice, began to flood quicker than expected. Due to this the government moved their operations to the town of Ravenna, about a hundred kilometres to the south. In the year nineteen ninety seven, the first Guapo-European war broke loose, with Guapo becoming the victor and taking over the former city of Rome. The second Guapo-European war occurred not long afterwards, with the Three Year battle of the Mediterranean and ending with the invasion of Tangier and Gibraltar. That brings us to the more recent of major events. In twenty-fourteen, after the Treaty of Valencia with Spanish separatist forces, the Guapo navy was escorted through the North Atlantic, up to the sympathetic port of Dublin. Guapo was the first to declare another war, against a country which used to be known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, often shortened to the letters UK. The UK had a secret alliance with Norway, Denmark and The Netherlands which was formed due to the disbandment of another treaty called the North Atlantic Treaty only a few months before. This sparked the North Europe Conflict of twenty-fourteen.
After a violent but short war, Guapo forces had sent their land forces north where what many people say the first formed district was made - the Tartarus District. Their navy sailed up the River Severn and invaded what is now the Eighth and Ninth, in Aion and Hera districts respectively. They used their well trained forces to eliminate opposition and invade further into the country. They pushed all remaining forces off the island of Britain and forced diplomats to sign a treaty giving all invaded land to Guapo. Norway, Denmark and The Netherlands asked for peace, which was agreed to only six months after the invasion started.”
The class was silent. One boy raised his hand.
“Sir, do you know anything about the Oxford Massacre?”
“Ah… no, unfortunately young Smith, that’s not in the curriculum so…”
“You do know something?”
“No. If there’s no more questions, I shall continue. By modern day, almost twenty years after the war ended, there are eleven districts. Does anyone know what they are all called? Troy?”
Troy looked up. He was distracted, thinking of the messages on the paper.
“Uhhm… There’s Nyx, Apollo, Artemis… and…”
Serena nudged him, whispering. “And the Zeus district.”
“And Zeus.”
Mr Hall nodded. “Yes yes, and the Hermes, Achlys, Aether, Aion, Hera, Tartarus and the Titan District, Cronus. All these eleven districts formed due to both cultural divides, terrain, unstable and limited control of the wider government and unions of similar beliefs. Subjugated to the Kingdom of Guapo, most of the country is supposed to be governed via a mixture of private corporate politicians and diplomats from our southern brethren. However due to tension between districts, divide is… obvious, and some less friendly districts have expressed desire to self govern to a further degree than their currently limited control over laws. Two main groups have been formed, the Primordial Districts, who are more willing to comply with Guapian control, and the Olympian Districts who would prefer more command over their own affairs. The Titan District, Cronus has sworn allegiance to neither group and is almost completely under the grasp of the Kingdom of Guapo. As the Nyx is surrounded by three Olympian Districts it is at high risk of being part of a civil war, so please, I tell you, be careful. Now, the lesson is almost over. Please turn to page one hundred and answer some questions on this topic.”
A groan from the class.
“Alright, homework.”
The library was empty other than Troy and Serena. Troy had a fresh sheet of paper, and a black ballpoint pen. Serena was holding a crumpled question sheet.
“Question 1. What occurs when you add Bromine Solution to an Alkene?”
Troy was, once again, distracted and not listening.
The shadow where a bookshelf obscured one of the long ceiling lights was cast over the paper, forming a few, definite words.
‘I wouldn’t ignore me if I were you Troy.’
“TROY!”
He jumped slightly. “Uhh… A salt forms.”
Serena sighed and leant her head against his shoulder.
“Sorry… The Bromine Solution turns from an orange/brown to colourless.”
Not bad, not bad. Just thirteen more questions to answer in ten minutes…
“Good morning class. I hope your day has been good so far.”
Back in the chemistry classroom with a fresh smell of sulfur in the air.
Troy waved goodbye to Serena and sat in his seat behind the high desk.
Dr. Mahn turned towards him. “And before we start, please hand in your homework at the front desk.”
Troy got back up, took out the piece of paper and the question sheet and placed it gently on the doctor’s desk.
[ITEM A: Troy’s Homework]
“Troy. Did you do this at break?”
“Yes sir.”
“Go and sit down. I expect better next time.
Troy sat down again, next to another boy his age staring into the distance mindlessly.
“Hi William.”
“Oh… Hello Troy.”
He made no eye contact, made no attempt to move, just nodded slightly.
Troy took out a pen, pencil and exercise book.
“Class, please turn to page four-seven-six in the textbook and answer questions as I go through the content. If you recall, we’ve been studying simple organic chemistry recently. Today I will summarise the basics of alcohols. At your level you need to know that alcohols are compounds containing three common elements, those being Hydrogen, Carbon and Oxygen. Alcohols all contain the functional group -OH.”
Troy noted this down. He disliked chemistry. Dr. Mahn was a great teacher, if not a little condescending at times, although mostly that was his own fault.
“Some alcohols are common outside of the lab as well. Ethanol is used in alcoholic drinks and is a depressant drug, which you should be aware about from biology. It is also flammable, as I’m sure you know from Christmas Puddings. They can also be used to form Carboxylic Acids, which we shall be learning about next lesson.”
I should really hurry up with these questions.
“Now, once you’ve done up to question ten, stand up and head to the back, and we can set things on fire.”
The class cheered. Even Troy cheered. William did not cheer.
Flames of white, yellow and blue danced in front of their eyes, licking upwards in beautiful spirals of intense heat. They faded too soon, with the laughter of the class.
“Alright, be gone with the lot of you. I want a half page summary on alcohols by next week.”
Everybody filed out of the room, with the clock at eleven past twelve.
Later at lunch, Serena met back up with Troy and they sat together. Troy held a plain, dry ham sandwich wrapped in brown paper in his hand. They were sitting at a small table, away from the main crowd.
“Why did it have to rain?”
Troy looked longingly out the thick glass window, where droplets of water shedded onto the clear screen, sliding down in a mesmerising pattern. Even inside the school there was a noticeable chill as if somebody had forgotten to put the heating on.
Serena gently touched his arm. “What’s with wanting to go outside all of a sudden.”
“It doesn’t feel as if you’re being watched.”
She paused at the unexpected comment, before finally speaking. “What.”
“Nevermind. Let’s go upstairs. I’m sure we can do some homework in the library or something…”
Troy stood up and headed for the stairs. Up on the second floor they passed Dr. Mahn’s classroom once more. It had a distinct smell, one of a clear memory blurred over by time.
At the end of the science department, the corridor thinned out as it twisted between a classroom and the chemical storage room, becoming only wide enough for one person to walk down. Between where this started and where it widened up again was a tight ninety degree turn where you couldn’t see past the corner. Troy almost tripped up on a small glass bottle left on the floor, and after stumbling slightly, he picked it up.
“What is it?” Asked Serena.
“Ethanol. This shouldn’t be here, someone must have dropped it.”
They turned the corner - the tight one - intending to go and return the container, instead running into a delicate mountain of similar glass containers, all piled up behind the sharp turn. Every single one of these was labelled the same. “Ethanol. Highly flammable.”
He gasped. “What is this doing here? There must be a hundred of these…”
One of the bottles slipped and fell, causing the rest to avalanche down with it, the bottles exploding into thousands of shards which flew like dangerous splinters of the most fragile kind. Then it all burst into flames.
A large weight crashed into Troy’s side along with an overwhelming wave of heat. He collapsed on the ground in agony, closing his eyes. Before he lost consciousness, a few words flashed across his mind, branded there by a mental iron.
‘You should have listened, idiot.’
[ITEM B: Medical Record, for Troy Corner.]
[ITEM C: Medical Record for Serena Maudite]
It hurt. His head hurt. His legs hurt. His chest hurt.
Slowly, he opened his eyes to a blinding light.
“Ah, you’re awake. Not out for long I see.” A friendly looking doctor was standing over the bed he lay on. “Nothing to worry about, a few nasty looking burns and some bruised ribs but it’s not life threatening. I’m Doctor Samuel Tann, Eleventh A&E and burns ward. You’re Troy correct? Your parents are waiting in the next room, if you could answer a few questions for me, we can let you go soon enough, be careful with those ribs however.”
Serena and his parents were waiting for him. She only had some small burns on her arm and was happy enough to see Troy safe. Hugs, and a phone call with both the school and the police later, he was back at home in his room. At his desk he sat with a sheet of paper and a phone.
[ITEM D: Troy’s messages with Serena]
He smiled down at his phone, ‘Goodnight Serena.’
‘Goodnight Troy <3.’
Alright. No time like the present to start this summary for Dr. Mahn. I don’t want to miss this opportunity. Although that’s exactly what I said last time…
That night Troy fell asleep with his head on his desk.
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Forum Curses Entr’acte: Who Am I? - Off Topic - Arcane Odyssey
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