The Grief Striken Blade.

I had entered a sort of self-induced insomnia kind of state, too tired and too easily frightened to even think of sleep for the rest of the night. I spent the sleepless hours to browse and re-read Star Trek: The Price of Phoenix, a novel I had not touched since I was ten. I quite enjoyed re-living the unsettling news of Captain Kirk’s death to the second death of Omne.
Just as the last few pages unread for the second time, I caught a view of the orange digital clock I had placed on the black mini table I had kept there for reminders to see that school was going to interrupt my science fiction fun. I hurriedly did my morning ritual of showering, clothing and eating and made my way down the school area of the orphanage.
I walked among the fleeing occupants that inhabited most of the rooms and stories that, most likely, had just relived themselves of the same routines I just did; along with the few dead. The dead each gave me a few similar plea’s about finding a way to live again, I chose to ignore them since I didn’t know.
I entered the second building which was connected to the orphanage. Which was originally bought to add extra space, but it was too unused and they eventually used it for the children’s educational support and so they dubbed it, the school area.
The white once wall for the halls grew heavily graphitised over time, courtesy of those so called ‘badass kids’. The marble green floors had several little triangles each connected to each other except for a small smidge space between them to give it that now popular cropped look. A various collection of identical metallic blue lockers travelled down in a row from up to the hall down the distant end, the fact that these lockers were so twin like it made me slightly dizzy just by rushing by them. The ceiling had dimly lit flat rectangular flickering lights attached to it. Though the lights were large it was that badly damaged it only lit up a small of space for a certain amount of small time.
When I finally arrived to my classroom, I instantly realised that the class had fallen in some kind hushed silence for the first time in a month. Mister Ray was narrating a dumbed down version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth and the teacher seemed more eager than usual. I decided to awkwardly pull up a chair at the end of the second row; right next to me sat my other friend, Danny Cloud.
Danny was a twin, but older by a few minutes, because of this; he felt it was necessary to prevent any danger threatening his sister. Not because he was forced to, but because he wanted to. Since his parents died in a in horrific car crash when they were 3. That not only scarred the twins, but left the corpses of their mother and father twisted and warped. Danny’s hair was brown, flat and short your average hairstyle.
Danny’s blue glowing eyes flickered off the reading teacher over to me once he heard the small muffled thud of me pulling up a chair. I immediately stared mindlessly at the rain drop covered window on the left side nearest me, barely taking in the cruel betrayal between Lady Macbeth and her husband. There I saw a fogged up figure jumping in water puddles left by the rain childishly out the window. Something shook in me, it was odd, and it was like that feeling of death, though it wasn’t quite the same. I made a small noise of surprise. I never felt this feeling before. What was it?
“Joshua?” The voice of Mister Ray managed to snap me out of my befuddled spell.
“Mm?” I looked at Mister Ray, my face bewildered.
“What is the moral that this play teaches us?” He said sternly.
My mind fell into an abrupt empty state for a moment. I wasn’t listening, and I think he knew it, but I didn’t know how to tell to him that without getting in trouble. Though it was a small price to pay it was still embarrassing. I looked over to Danny and mouthed the word help, but he just sat there flushed in embarrassment too, unsure.
“Play?” I muttered breathlessly.
Small giggles were let out by the amused students and the teacher sighed at my audacity. He put down the book on the nearest table, and turned to me
“Macbeth, Joshua. Macbeth.” He repeated, rather frustrated.
Unbelievable, first he’s immensely eager and now he’s just being a complete jerk.
‘Perhaps it’s the weather. .’ A thought rolled by in my head.
I had read an article that lay in a science magazine I sneakily stole in the playground when I was ten. It flew out of nowhere on a windy day, it delicately landed at my feet and I took it. In it, they were debating whether or not if the climate can have some affect your mood. In the end they ruled out the weather can only affect some people, not all, though.
“Well, I never!” cried Freddie, imitating a girl’s voice “Now, Mister Ray, you apologise right now.” I looked over to the edge of the room to see Freddie standing on his desk with his hands on his hips.
Freddie face was now turned to me and gave me a mischievous wink. My classmates burst into deprived laughter; I let out a laugh too but immediately regretted it when I saw Mister Ray’s clearly irritated face.
“Mister Dawkins, on the chair; now!” agitated mister Ray bellowed while pointing to the now empty chair.
Freddie looking like mister Ray’s rage struck him like lightning now, did so. After a few more recited pages from the script, the bell rang and we departed for the next class. Our happy small group of comrades met briefly as we made our way to our second classes for the day. Spotting each other amongst the flood of fleeing students, we connected together like magnets and began exchanging our news.
“So, what’s the buzz?” Freddie asked all five of us, his arm lying on my shoulder.
Danny Cloud’s twin sister, Vanessa Cloud’s lip curled up, slightly embarrassed at Freddie’s awkward remark.
“What’s the buzz?” Vanessa repeated more slowly and sternly, leaning over to Danny’s side of the line.
“Give the man a break, sis,” Danny, his blue eyes now closed, laughed slightly “it’s just an old expression.” He said.
Vanessa shook her head, her lengthy brown smooth hair swaying from side to side as her grip on the stack of books she held against her chest increased a bit.
“I know.” She said, “It’s just weird is all.”
My eyes flickered to Vanessa for a moment, she blushed, and her body tensed and dropped her books with an echo like thud. Vanessa was always doing that, blushing. I habitually stooped forward along with Adam Evans doing the same.
Adam’s hair was ebony and was slightly in a spike hair style, but had a fringe that covered one of his green eyes; this made him look like a bad kid. Yet, despite this, he’s quite immensely shy. Though, shy Freddie often protested against his presence in our group. When I asked him what he meant he said,
“I don’t know I can’t trust him and neither should you.”
“Here, let me help you.” Adam muttered shyly, picking up a green book.
I collected most of the books and retrieved them in a stack and handed it to her as her face lit up with a blush like glow.
When I arrived to my maths classroom I sat eagerly watching the window for a reason I can’t explain. Minutes passed and then I decoded why I was so excited, the figure was back; clearer now. It had been wearing what seemed like a dress doing exactly what it was doing half an hour ago. It was jumping in large puddles. Like a flash flood that feeling snuck back on me with the largest of impact.
‘What are you?’ I found myself saying to the figure.