Flying High

Looking up into the bright sun made my eyes sting, especially since there was a white rifle flying up into the air. It came down so fast I didn’t even have time to breathe out. I managed to catch it, but it wasn’t very solid. From the press box, I could hear my instructors screaming at me.

“Is there any excuse for that poor catch Colette?!” roared Dean, my equipment instructor.

“The sun is in my eyes and the gun keeps getting lost in the sunlight.” I screamed back. “Maybe if we wore sunglasses every once in a while then we would all be able to see out equipment better!”

That wasn’t a very smart idea to do. We were never supposed to talk back to our instructors but I was tough, I could handle anything that they threw at me as a punishment. The other girls around me were looking at each other and nodding. I heard murmurs and whispers going around, sayings like “she’s right” and “she sure does have some guts to stand up for herself and the team.” Next thing I knew, the whole color guard was running three laps around the track while the band restarted back to the set before. Marching band isn’t all that it’s cut out to be. A lot of people under estimate it and think it’s so easy to walk and play eight and a half minutes of music or jazz run and spin a flag, rifle, or sabre. Sadly, their judgments are so damn wrong as always. It’s band camp now, the last two weeks of August have finally arrived and what sucks is that 1- it’s only day two out of ten, 2- we have our first exhibition in eleven days, and 3- school is starting in thirteen days. What a great way to end the summer. I pass my friend Ryanne and I look at her. She smiles and mouths the words good job. I smile and mouth back thanks and I continue onto my third and final lap. Everyone is on the other side of the field but somehow I ended up in the front. I’m not sure how, I feel lighter on my feet, like I’m floating. But isn’t that what every track star feels like when they’re running? I finished my lap and grabbed my gun and raced back into block while the band was resetting. I spy my boyfriend with his tenor saxophone. I pass him and we smile at each other. Gabe is such a sweet heart and is probably one of the most attractive people in the whole marching band. I get to my spot before as soon as all the other guardos grab their equipment. While they were racing back to their spots, I felt a strange shiver go through my body.

“Oh crap,” I thought, “am I getting a bug or something?” I hate being sick, especially during the summer. I decided to keep pushing and just go with it; hopefully it wouldn’t be a bad choice. Everyone was done running and back in their spots in time to move onto the next set. I got at the catch position and waited for the metronome to start up at the insanely fast tempo of the opener. I kept waiting but nothing was happening. Everyone was still set but I turned my head to see what was wrong. One of the drum majors was attempting to fix the met, but he had no clue what was wrong. When he set it down and ran up to the front to tell the instructors what’s wrong, I saw a dark entity form right behind the device. I got the same chill as before and it felt as if all the color rushed out of my face and into the air around me.

It was a tall figure, with strange tentacle things emerging from its back. Its face kept transforming so I couldn’t tell if it had a face of a man or a woman. Its arms were long and skinny and the fingers were sharp pale blades that were so long that they dragged behind the figure. Its legs were two black sharp blades with no feet or toes. I could see things swirling around inside its body, almost as if it was a portal into some dark and evil region of space. It slowly turned its head towards me. It knew that I could see it and no one else. I froze and it felt as if the blood from my eyes disappeared completely. Everything then became blurry when it locked its gaze with mine. Before I completely blacked out, I could see a giant smile form with sharp bloody teeth.