Of Stones and Stars by donteatpoop PG

Chapter 7: Power

The next morning I awoke before the alarm and turned the clock off; it was becoming a bit of a routine. I dressed and loaded the pockets; wallet in the back-right, keys in the front-right, pens and white-out in the front-left. Then I reached under my pillow and grabbed the two most important items I needed to load into my pockets; the star gods. I put them in the front-right with my keys.

After making a quick stop in the bathroom to take care of my morning deeds, I made my way downstairs and poured myself a bowl Frosted Wheat cereal, sprinkling a bit of sugar on top of it for added effect.

My mother came out to wish me a good morning while pouring two cups of coffee; one of which she gave to my father who entered the kitchen as I was placing my empty bowl in the sink.

“What happened to your face?” He asked. Apparently mom hadn’t told him.

“Some kids jumped me on my way home from school yesterday,” I explained briefly.

“Are you serious?” He asked, as though I would have gone to such lengths for a joke.

“Yeah, dad; I’m serious.”

“You should report that to some school officials,” he said.

“Why?” I asked. “It didn’t happen at school, so they can’t do anything about it.”

“Well,” he said; “I could talk to his parents if you’d like.”

I laughed a little. “No, dad,” I said. “Thanks, but that would only make it worse.”

I put my backpack on and wished them both a good day before stepping out the door and into a chill breeze of the morning. The clouds were dark overhead and the moisture in the air whispered promises of an oncoming storm. Hopefully I would make it to school before it started.

I walked at a relatively brisk pace, following the same path to school that I followed each day. The stones didn’t tug me in any other directions, and for that I was thankful. Whatever they had sensed the other day was gone now, or they were no longer concerned with it. Today I could just go to school and have a relatively normal day.

As I arrived at school the first few drops of the storm began to fall. Mercifully we didn’t have to stand out there long before they opened the doors and allowed us to step inside sooner than normal. We were instructed to just stand in the hall, but at least we were out of the rain.

“What the fuck happened to you?!” Ryan exclaimed when he saw me. I had a feeling this was going to be a recurring question throughout the day.

“Yesterday, when I was walking home, Bull and a couple of his buddies jumped me.”

“Damn,” my friend said. “I guess you should have expected it after you embarrassed the shit out of Bull, though.”

I didn’t respond, just glared back at him. “It was worth it,” I said, my smile cracking open a cut on my lip. Ryan laughed a little, pushing his glasses back up on his nose smugly.

The bell soon rang and the crowded halls slowly dissipated as everyone dispersed through the halls. After wading through the slowly moving sea of people I eventually reached room 203 and made my way to my seat.

Kristi walked in soon after. Her eyes went a little wide when she first saw me, but then she smiled at mean and her smile felt like a warm summer afternoon, but I kept my cool and smiled back. She sat down in front of me and as she walked by I caught a hint of lavender. She was so beautiful.

As the rest of the class filed in, Kristi turned around in her seat and looked at me blankly as if waiting for me to say something.

“Good morning,” I said.

“What happened to you?” She asked.

“I got jumped by four guys on my way home from school yesterday.”

“Wow,” she said. “Who was it?”

“Who do you think? Bull and some of his friends,” I said, perhaps somewhat harshly.

“What an asshole,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I said somewhat resigned.

Then the announcements began and I could thankfully stop talking about getting beat up. It hurt my pride more than a little to admit defeat when talking to Kristi. We stood up for the pledge and sat through the announcements.

When the announcements finally ended, Mr. Kinder began class. The class went by without any noteworthy incidents. He called on me a few times to work out some of the problems, but I knew what I was doing today and he stopped calling on me.


When the bell rang I stood up and walked out of class and into the hall, headed for my next class. I turned around a bend and saw Mark Feely headed my way. He was smiling, the arrogant bastard; he was smiling. I became enraged inside and I wanted to just bash his head in then and there, but I was thankfully able to control myself.

“My God,” he said, stopping before me. “What the hell happened to your face?” He laughed a little, gloating.

“You know damn well what happened to my face,” I shot back coldly. “You realized you couldn’t handle it on your own; after all you’re just a jock. What chance does a fucking linebacker have up against a nerd, anyway? It’s no wonder it took four of you to do it.”

I don’t know why the hell I said all that, but I did. It just came spewing from my mouth, icy cold and dripping with an almost terrifying controlled rage. Bull actually took a step back at first before regaining his composure.

“You want to do this again?” He asked, muscles tensing for a fight.

“Not here and not now,” I replied. “I don’t want to get suspended again, and I’m sure you don’t want to get kicked off the football team.”

“Yeah,” he said with a triumphant smile on stupid face. “That’s what I thought.”

“After school,” I said, breaking up his premature celebration. “Meet me at Cohlbergh Park.”

“Cohlbergh Park,” he said; “who even goes there?”

“No one,” I told him. “That’s kind of the point.”

“Ah,” He said, realizing why the park was a good place to go.

“Bring your friends,” I told him; “maybe they’d like to have another go.”

As I walked past him he laughed. “You’re serious? Fine, I’ll be there. You better show up.”

I’d be there, that was for sure. For now I had to get through the rest of the school day.

******************************************

The rest of the school day passed pretty quickly. I found myself looking forward to the fight that I hadn’t intended on being involved in. It was the black stones influence, I knew that much. But there was something about being so certain that you would be the victor that made me feel so strong. I felt powerful. I was going to defeat my enemies in hand to hand combat.

I started walking towards Cohlbergh Park. It was the perfect location for the fight to take place. It had a bit of a reputation around the town; a lot of people thought the place was haunted. No one ever went there, and everyone who ventured to the park said they were very uneasy when they were in the park.

I understood their superstitions about the park. I had them myself, after all. But now I know why the park was the way it was; the black stone was what made the park so terrible to visit. And I had the black stone.

I smiled to myself as I thought about it.

I was the first to arrive at the park and I sat my backpack down on the bent merry-go-round. I paced around, admiring the clouds which drifted lazily by. I looked around the park; finding a few puddles here and there but not much else.

Nearly half an hour passed before Bull showed up. And he brought more than just the friends who jumped me yesterday. There were a good six of them up against me. Cowards.

“These guys couldn’t believe it when I told them you wanted more,” he said to me, a few of them laughed.

“If I had wanted to have a conversation,” I said; “I’m sure I wouldn’t have had much problem finding more intellectually stimulating company.”

“Alright,” He said, cracking his knuckles and starting to walk towards me; “Let’s just do it then.”

“Yes, let’s,” I agreed. “Did you need your friends to hold me down or anything? Because if that’ll make it easier on you...”

I could feel the black stone really getting into this banter, it was hungry for battle; hungry for blood. It laughed, or whatever the equivalent was to laughter for the star god; sending out waves of fear. Bull’s friends looked around a little nervously as they approached me a few paces back from their apparent leader.

Mark was soon within range and he started putting his weight into his punches. That he was strong was evident, but his punches didn’t come fast enough to pose a threat to me. I dodged his first two swings easily and punched him one in the gut. As he doubled over in pain, I pushed down on his back and kneed him once more in the stomach.

He kind of toppled over onto the ground from there. His friends weren’t too far behind him and I tensed up a bit, tightening my muscles as they came in closer. That’s when I noticed something odd about my hands; they seemed to have been covered with a hard layer of rock skin, infinitely black.

When the first of the other guys reached me, I swung a fist in at his head but he raised an arm to block the blow. Upon the impact of my fist, the bone in his forearm snapped. He fell to the ground clutching at his arm.

The next guy came in at me with a fist that actually landed, struck me in the jaw and turned my head to the side. When he came in with the follow up punch, however, I was ready for him. I blocked the punch and bashed my head inward towards his, my forehead breaking his nose and splattering blood all over the two of us.

I looked at the next guy and a growl escaped my lips. He took a step back and put his hands up in truce. He and the other two who had not yet involved themselves in the fight backed slowly away and headed for the park exit.

I suppose I looked pretty fierce, blood all over my face and three of their friends crawling around in pain on the ground. I turned around to laugh at them but only saw two of the guys down; one holding his face, the other holding his arm. Bull had gotten back to his feet.

I spun around in time to see him coming down with a heavy fist that caught me in the shoulder. I took the hit for the sake of the punch I threw as a counter; my stone-fist hit his face in the same moment that he hit my shoulder, I felt the bones go mushy under my hand as the black seemed to seep back into my pores.

Bull fell to the ground unmoving; breathing still, but unmoving.

I laughed at them for a minute; taunting them, and then I grabbed my backpack off of the merry-go-round and heading for home.

The walk home was great; I was elated after claiming such absolute victory in battle. It felt amazing. There’s really no feeling quite like defeating your enemies and walking away virtually unscathed.

The long walk home was a short one. The time flew by with the breeze and before I could even think of how long I had been taking, I found myself unlocking the front door and letting myself into the empty house.

After slipping out of my shoes, I ran up the stairs and into my room, dropping my backpack off on the floor and crashing onto my bed. It was like I was a little kid again; overly excited by minor accomplishments. I silently thanked the stones as I lay there staring up at the ceiling.

My mother came home not too long after, she had picked Lizzie up from school and taken her to the doctor for her yearly checkup. Lizzie was a little sick from some shots the doctors had given her, and she retired to her own bed. It was a little sad to see my normally cheerful little sister so melancholy.

It was about an hour before the phone rang and I head my mother raise her voice a little before hanging up and stomping up the stairs to my room. She didn’t knock like she normally does, just threw open the door and stood there for a moment thinking of what to say. Her face was beat red and she was visibly shaking with anger.

“Do you realize what you’ve done?!” She screamed.

“No,” I said calmly, acting far more confused than I was. “What’s wrong?”

“You sent three boys to the hospital today,” she said barely below a scream. “Three boys that said you beat them up.”

“What?!” I said, outwardly shocked at the suggestion but inwardly proud that they had to go to the hospital over what I did to them. “Mom, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t play stupid with me, Andrew;” she said. “This violence has to stop.”

“Mom,” I said; “I really don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t do anything today, just went to school and came home.”

“Really?” She asked. “Where did you go after school?”

“I walked home.”

“That’s not what these boys are claiming and that’s not what their friends are claiming.” She said. “They say you attacked them.”

“Who are we even talking about, mom?”

“That same kid you got suspended for fighting with last week,” she said.

I laughed a little at this. “Bull? Bull and his friends?”

“Yeah,” mom said; crossing her arms over her chest.

“Mom, they’re all jocks. Bull’s a linebacker, all of his friends are big football players. I don’t see how it’s even conceivable that I could have beat them up.”

My mom snorted. “Yeah, well… You stay in your room while I get to the bottom of this.”

“Okay,” I said. “But mom, I didn’t do anything.”

“If I find out you’re lying…” she said, wagging her finger at me. She left my room shaking her head, letting the open ended threat hang in the air. I wondered how I was going to get out of this jam, but something told me I’d do just fine.

I’d never been physically fit, though I was neither thin nor fat. I’d only been in one fight before the first encounter with Bull a week before, and I’d never been a trouble maker save for the few things that had happened at the beginning of the school year. That was my defense, as simple as that. The guys I beat up outweighed me, outmuscled me, outnumbered me, and outclassed me. How was it possible that I had beat them up? Clearly they were lying.

And that’s what their parents believed. Logic prevailed the truth of it all when they saw me. A few of them questioned the bruises on my face, but when I explained the beating that three of the guys had put on me the day before two things happened; they were upset with their boys for behaving like that, and the possibility of me beating them up a day later became even more preposterous.

When it’s all said and done, logical lies trump outlandish truths.

My mother said she was sorry for not believing me at first, but given recent events she wasn’t sure what to believe. She asked me what I wanted for dinner and I decided that we would eat pizza. When Lizzie got up from her nap, she was delighted with my choice.

I went to sleep satisfied with the day and completely relaxed.

But my dreams were not so comforting.

My dreams were a bit frantic. They seemed to center around a third stone, a brilliant red stone that the black and blue had contacted.

Apparently someone was in possession of the red stone, and they were coming to collect the two that I had. It didn’t matter to the stones who possessed them, so long as they were together. I realized then that I had to be prepared for anything in the days to come; and in my dreams the stones helped to prepare me; showing me more secrets about them and how to use what I was learning.

The question was no longer an ‘if’, it had become a when. When the next stone arrives, will I be able to possess it? Will I be able to defeat the current wielder of the red star god? Or would he defeat me and take the blue and black from me?

I realized that night that the possibility of losing the stones was more terrifying to me than losing my life; though I was certain that if I did not win the upcoming battle I would be losing both the stones and my life.