Tom Jason

Chapter 2
8 Years Later

Tom found himself in a dark room. He couldn’t even see three inches in front of his face. He stood still afraid that he would move he would fall into to the never-ending darkness that he saw below his feet. The seconds passed and suddenly Tom heard a whirring sound coming from above. He looked up.

Floating above him was a green ball that that shone and illuminated the room in which he was confined. The ball got lower and lower until it was right in front of his face, the light reflecting upon his eyes. As soon as this happened he felt no fear anymore, but curiosity. He wondered what in the world could this thing be, and his curiosity beat his insecurity. Tom outstretched his hand towards the object and then….

He woke with a shriek.

Tom got up from his bed and wiped a couple beads of sweat from his brow and walked over to the mirror. He saw his reflection. Tom was a fourteen year old boy; he was tall and skinny with brown hair and three long scars across his face. Those scars were what made Tom such a peculiar boy, for some reason those scars would ache and sting, and when that would happen is that Tom would see a glow of green light. He doesn’t know what it means, he might just be crazy.

He walked back to his bedside and saw an old talisman sitting on top of his dresser; he picked it up and started spinning it. Nothing, he set down the talisman and went to take a shower.

After taking a shower he went downstairs where he saw his mom. This lady was tall and pretty to usual standards; she was a secretary for local law firm and was very nice for a busy, single mother like herself.

“Hey mom”, Tom said when he walked into the kitchen.

“Mornin’ Tom, how’d you sleep?” she asked. He didn’t say anything, he just shrugged.

Tom walked up to the kitchen table and sat down. His mother was already dressed in her suit and was getting a cup of coffee before heading down to work.

“Your breakfast is in the microwave, set it for 30 seconds before you eat it, ok?” she said, taking a sip from her cup. Tom just nodded and his mom grabbed her car keys and headed towards the door. She took one last one sip from her cup and said, “Hurry up and eat your breakfast, you’re going to miss your bus. Have a good day honey.”

“Yeah mom, see ya” he mumbled.

Tom went up stairs and prepared his backpack; while he was putting his notebook into his bag he got a strange feeling, a feeling that someone was watching him. He went back downstairs, sat down, and ate his breakfast (he ate it cold since he didn’t bother to heat it up in the microwave). He got his backpack and headed towards the door.

Tom had a pleasant day at school; he saw his friends and his teachers were as bitter as ever, and he saw Lily (the girl of his dreams), but he was just glad it was Friday. He got home, did his homework and after his mom got home and served him dinner, he went to his room to watch some TV, and minutes later he was snoozing in his bed.

Again Tom was in a dark room, he couldn’t see and he couldn’t hear anything. He didn’t walk or move because he was afraid to fall into the darkness. There was nothing around him, but then later he heard a weird whirring sound above his head. Tom then looked up towards the sound and saw a green ball of light. The ball kept getting lower and lower until it was right in front of Tom’s face.

Tom did nothing but just stare at the ball, it was still making the whirring sound but Tom could make out faint whispers coming from the light.

What is that? This is different from those other times; I wonder…, Tom thought.

Tom went and raised his hand towards the ball of light, and as soon as he touched the ball: it exploded. The whole room suddenly was filled with green light and Tom heard a loud female voice that screamed, “Tom! It’s all in your head! You are mad and you need to come to your senses! It will never happen, not even in your dreams!”

Then suddenly he woke.

“Tom, is something wrong?” his mom came into the room and sat next to Tom, “why’d you scream?”

“Oh nothing, uh bad dreams, yea” Tom told his mom shaking his head. Tom got out of bed and headed towards the bathroom and he washed his face in the sink.

“Ok then honey, try going back to sleep” his mom walked towards the door and stopped, “unless, you need something else.”

Tom just shook his head and said, “No mom thanks.”

“Ok then, just call me if you need anything” and she headed out the door.

Tom went back to his room and looked at the digital clock next to his bed, 8 ‘o clock, still early.

Ahh, it’s Saturday. It feels nice, finally a break, Tom thought as he turned on the TV and went to lie in his bed. Hours passed and he was in the middle of watching a jewelry store commercial when a rock went through his window and hit his mirror, cracking it along the middle.

“Hey, what the hell?!” Tom yelled as he went towards the window. He stuck his head out the window ready for another rock, just in case they were aiming for him, and looked down onto his yard and there he saw his best friend Jimbo.

“Sorry man, I thought that the window was closed. So you wanna go shoot some hoops?” Jimbo said, holding a basketball in his right arm.

“Yeah, let me just get ready”

Minutes later Tom and Jimbo were heading down the street towards the park nearby. Jimbo was Tom’s best friend; they’ve known each other since the first grade and have been goofballs since then. Jimbo was tall, with brown messy hair and a look of a jock. Jimbo was the smartest kid Tome ever knew, but Jimbo doesn’t have the best grades because he was also the class clown, everyone loved Jimbo and Jimbo loved everyone.

Jimbo had a very sunny disposition and always put a smile on everyone’s face, but today there was something wrong with him. He wasn’t smiling, he looked worried and serious, this was not like him, something must be wrong.

They finally got to the park and Tom asked, “Jimbo, is something wrong?”

“Well, kinda,” Jimbo said.

“What is it?” Tom asked.

“Dude, I’m moving” Jimbo said staring at the ground rather than at Tom.

“Nah! You’re kidding me” Tom said, “Right?”

“No, my dad got a job and we’re moving to New York.”

“Oh, well, when are you leaving? Next week or something?” Tom asked, hopefully.

“No, we’re leaving tomorrow in the afternoon.” Jimbo said sadly.

“Oh, uh… well we should at least play one last game, right?” Tom said grabbing the Jimbo’s basketball.

“Yeah” Jimbo said smiling.

They played basketball for the next half hour, and when they were finally tired they finally decided to go home.

“I’ll go to your house tomorrow, you know, before you leave.” Tom said.

“Uh, yea, ok then, see ya.” Jimbo said waving at his friend behind him.

When Tom got home he went up to his room without saying anything to his mom. He just went up and laid in his bed for a while until his mom told him that she was going to sleep and she said good night. Tom got up from his bed and picked up a couple of very thin books, they were his yearbooks from the 1st, 4th, 5th, and 7th grades.

As he looked at them he saw how much everyone seemed to change in just a couple of months. He looked an eight year old Jane Gonzales and seven year old Tom Jason and Jim Johnson. Tears swelled up as he looked at his best friend, he wouldn’t be seeing him for a long time.

He kept looking at the books for about twenty more minutes before he fell asleep.

When he woke up he was on the ground of room, “Ugh, I must’ve fallen off.” As he got up he saw himself lying asleep on the bed with the yearbooks over his chest, Tom screamed.

What the hell’s going on? Tom thought.

“Tom” a voice echoed so loud it sounded as if it were inside his head, “Tom” it called again.

“Yea?” Tom answered.

“Come”
Tom didn’t know whether to trust this voice, but at the moment he didn’t have much of choice.

He walked up to his door and tried to open it but his hand just went through the handle, he was like some kind of spirit now. Hoping he wasn’t dead he went through the door and followed an eerie feeling in his gut telling him to go to the living room.

As he entered the living room he saw four very mysterious figures standing in the middle of the room. They were all wearing cloaks and carried staffs, one green, one blue, one pink, and one red.

“This is it? This is the Shining Star?” the voice came from the figure with the blue staff.

“Yes, I’m pretty sure” a female voice came from the figure with the pink staff responded.

“Uh, excuse me, but who are you people?” Tom said.

“Oh yes, of course” the one with the pink staff said, “well, my name is Pandora, dragon of the south wind, nice to meet you” she took off her hood and revealed the face of a very beautiful woman with red hair. She had bright green eyes and was very tall, probably the tallest among the group, she had a beautiful smile. Then she pointed to the one green staff and said, “This is Ecro, dragon of the east wind.”

“Ello’ there,” Ecro said taking of his hood and bowing. This man had shaggy brown hair, a very square jaw, and dark black eyes. “Erry nice to eet you yun Thomas.”

“This is Fallander, dragon of the west wind” Pandora continued, pointing at the one with the blue staff.

This one also pulled down his hood revealing the face of a man probably no older than twenty-years of age. He had brown tan skin, with light brown eyes and long black hair; also he sported one earring on his right ear that had some kind of fang hanging from it.

“Hello, nice to meet you Mr. Jason, I’m proud to meet you” he said.

“Uh, thanks?” Tom said.

“Lastly” Pandora said, “this Samos, the dragon of the north wind.”

The one with the red staff, then, stepped up to Tom and lowered his hood. He revealed very long, shaggy, black hair. Under the hair were very bright, red eyes. He also had a very long face with pale white skin, and across his face were three long scars, just like Toms!

“Wha-“ Tom started.

“No questions, just listen, I don’t want to make this meeting very long” Samos said, his eyes glowing brighter. “Long story short is that we’re here to protect you.”

“Protect me?” Tom asked.

“Yes”

“Why?”

“Someone is after your life, and we have been chosen to guard it with ours.”

“But why is someone after me?” Tom asked again.

“I’m sorry, I we can’t tell you yet” Pandora said, “just trust us, we’ll protect you.”

Tom looked at these figures who just invade his house, gaped mouthed, turned around, and started to walk away. “I’m sorry guys, but I don’t need your protection” he waved his hand at the people behind him, “I can take care of myself, I always have. Sorry if you had to come a long way, but that’s not my problem.”

“But it is ours” Tom heard Samos’ voice from behind, “now I’m sorry, but we’re not leaving because you can’t protect yourself, that’s why we’re here.”

Silence.

“Ok, then” Tom said, turning around to look at the dragons, “do what you want, this is probably a dream anyways.”

“Oh, I wish” Samos said, “oh, how I wish this was a dream, this is more like the beginning of a very long an horrible nightmare” he turned around and said, “time to go for now, good night Tom, we’ll be back tomorrow.”

There was a loud CRACK! and they were gone. The sound shocked Tom and he woke up in his bed, he got up and as he did the yearbooks fell to the floor. He looked at the clock next to his bed.

Ten o’ clock. Ugh, mom already left for work, well I guess I’ll go and see Jimbo for one last time, Tom thought.

He got dressed quickly and headed out the door after making sure it was locked. He walked down the street, it was a fine Sunday morning but Tom felt horrible. He walked a couple more minutes and he reached Jimbo’s house, where he saw a moving truck heading out from the driveway. Behind the moving truck was Jimbo’s dad’s car, ready to leave.

He ran towards the old car and tapped on the window from one of the back seats and the window rolled down.

“What’re you doin’?” Tom asked.

“Tom, I told you, I’m moving today” Jimbo answered from inside the car.

“Yeah, but you said you weren’t leavin’ ‘till the afternoon” Tom said tears swelling up in his eyes.

“You told him that” Jimbo’s dad said from the front, “now that wasn’t nice, you should’ve told him the truth, I mean, not all the truth, of course.”

“Why not?” Tom asked.

“Uh, never you mind” Jimbo said, “I just didn’t want to say good-bye, I can’t do it. Oh yea, here, I was goin’ to leave it in your mailbox on the way, but since you’re already here.”

Jimbo took out a little package with brown paper wrapping, and a note on the top.

“Don’t open it right away” he said.

“Why?” Tom asked.

“Just don’t, you’ll get, kind of, a sign, I guess. Well whatever, you’ll know when to open it.”

“Time to go!” Jimbo’s dad yelled.

“Ok, uh, see ya” Tom said, backing away from the car, waving good-bye.

“Don’t worry” Jimbo said, “we’ll see each other again, I promise” he started rolling up the window, then he stopped and rolled it down again, “oh yea, and when we do meet again, don’t call me Jimbo, call me Jim. Ok then see ya.”

He rolled up the window and the car backed up on the driveway. It turned, and drove towards the early sunrise. Tom kept waving even after the car was no longer visible. When his arm got tired he put the package between his arm and armpit and started to walk home.

When he got home he went to his room and sat on his bed. He looked at the package and shook it to get an idea of what was inside, and while he shook the note attached to it fell to the floor.

Tom, whatever you do, don’t open the package until you get the signal. Believe me, you’ll know when you see it. Look on the bright side, maybe Lily will go out with you now that I’m gone. Oh! And before I forget, tell Jane good-bye for me.

Take care, sincerely

Jim Johnson

A tear dropped down to the floor as Tom read this letter. He knew that no matter how much he looked, he’ll never find a friend like Jim. He laid down on his bed and fell asleep.

He dreamed of the Four Dragons fighting a big shadow, Jim was flying and fighting alongside them, and saw Lily’s beautiful face. She yelled something, but he couldn’t hear it because there was a whirring sound coming from a ball of green light floating above him. Lily kept screaming and but still, Tom couldn’t hear a thing. The ball floated down in front of him and when he touched it, it exploded with a loud BANG! as it filled the room in bright green light.