Altered Destiny

Altered Destiny

Altered Destiny

Travis leaned against the side of the theater building in the shadows. He looked out into the courtyard, where the other students at his high school were eating lunch, playing ball, or occupying themselves by talking to friends. Travis looked on with a slight frown on his handsome face. Not because he was bitter, but because he was lonely.

Travis was a 16 year-old boy with sandy blonde hair, green eyes, and tons of ambition. Too bad he was stuck in this rat hole of a town. It was literally in the middle of nowhere. It didn’t even have a place on the map. Travis wore a black t-shirt, his favorite, so it was very worn in, and even had a few tears in places, blue jeans/cargo pants, (he found them very useful, since the teachers made him carry so much) and his trademark black and red fingerless racing gloves. Not to mention his black and red shoes.

Travis closed his eyes and sighed heavily.

“I’d better head out.” He muttered more to himself than to anyone else. He reached down to grab his bag, and gasped with a flutter to realize it was gone! A chuckle sounded from behind him, and Travis whirled around to see a blonde chubby boy in blue knee-length shorts and an orange and white jacket. His shoes were stark white, and his shirt was a vivid forest green. His somewhat curly blonde hair was as crew-cut as it could get without it looking like he’d lost a fight with a lawn mower.

The other boy grinned mischievously. A telltale sign that he was up to no good.

“I don’t have it.” His voice was saturated in the mock innocence that marked an obvious lie. Travis rolled his eyes at his friend.

“Uh huh, right, now give it back.” Travis was as sarcastic as he could be while he spoke these words.

Someone tapped Travis on the shoulder. Travis turned around and…nothing. No one was behind him. But it didn’t take a brain surgeon to discover what had happened. Travis turned again, and the two boys stood snickering and hitting each other, as they did whenever they were playing around. The husky boy, after much hitting from the other, finally dropped the bag. Travis went to retrieve his bag, shooting an odd look at the two.

The other boy was taller, rail thin, and was wearing glasses. His t-shirt was emblazoned with the name “Megadeth”, one of his favorite bands. Everything he wore, down to his shoes to his hoodie was all black. Even the frames of his glasses. His hair was an even sandier blonde than Travis’ but unlike Travis; the boy had some issues with acne. Despite this, though, once you got him started, he was a great conversationalist.

“Hey Mike, Hey James. What’s up?” Travis asked as he nodded toward each of them in turn, apparently ignoring the fact that he had just fallen victim to the most basic of all pranks.

“Not much.” James replied, shaking his head and adjusting his glasses on his face. The things always seemed to slide off.

Mike just gave James a hard, fast punch to the groin, which made Travis laugh, nearly fall on the ground himself, and it made James fall to the dirt, clutching at his stinging parts, which made Travis laugh even harder. When Travis and James finally did pick themselves off the floor, James yelled,

“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!?”

“I just felt like it.” Mike shrugged. They were certainly strange friends, but Travis did always pick strange friends.

Travis rushed home that day, but not before buying himself an ice-cream cone. He was burning up in the sweltering heat, and the mint chocolate chip ice cream was, incredibly, even more delicious. Travis rushed up the 31 flights of stairs to his apartment, finally staggering to the door. He stopped and took a few deep raspy breaths before opening it. The room was tiny. Just a small stove a tiny refrigerator, a couch, and two doors opposite the door through which Travis had just entered. It was amazing. Travis’ dad had been the janitor for the apartment building for as long as Travis could remember. And he did a damn good job, too. But the moment he comes home, he turns into a complete slob. He was a complete neat freak when he was outside the apartment and all…

Travis knelt down by the tiny fridge, opened the door slowly, as not to spill anything out of it, and pulled out a can of iced tea and a box of crackers. He poured some of the squares out onto his hand and placed the rest back into the fridge.

It was only when Travis sat down on the couch to relax did he notice something wrong. There was an odd lump in the couch. Strange, Travis thought, that wasn’t there before I left. Then he reached between the cushions and felt something. He yanked at it….nothing. He pulled harder…..nothing. He tried lifting up the cushions, but it wasn’t there either. So finally, he planted his feet firmly, and put all his strength against the stuck object. Finally, with a loud rip, it flew free! Travis caught it in midair, and examined the damage. The cushion was completely torn apart, but weighing more heavily on his mind right now, was the book in his hand. It had his father’s name written fancifully in gold print across the title area, it had two locks, it was aged, Travis could tell, but still, it was an exquisite article.

Travis stroked its dusty leather front. Could it be? Travis thought skeptically, my father’s diary?

Then, there was some clicking heard from within the tome. The locks became unhinged, and Travis opened the book. It was indeed a forgotten journal. Travis looked around, he listened carefully for any footsteps, or a sign that his dad might be coming back. Then he rushed into his room and flopped onto his bed.

Travis’ room was the most decorative room in the house, despite it being so small, it was adorned with many curios and trinkets that were related to pirates. It had always been one of Travis’ secret ambitions to become a pirate. As such, he decorated his room with a nautical theme in his youth, and still had not tired of it.

Travis, with a strange sense of foreboding and a trembling hand, as if the book had a fatal secret to hide, reached slowly to open the book. What could be in here, Travis thought, that dad had to hide? He reached for the front cover, seeing his dad’s name in the fancy gold lettering. It was beautiful, but he couldn’t let himself get distracted! Travis’ heart was pounding. Harder, faster, louder, wait, that wasn’t his heart!

Travis quickly jumped off of the bed and ran out to the living room. He stuffed the book under the couch and tried to cover up his mess.

The pounding got louder, and soon, it was at the door. Travis’ dad, Kane rushed in. he was normally fatigued, but this time, he was wild-eyed and frantic.

“Travis,” Kane said quietly, “My book. Get it.”

Travis nodded solemnly, and dug the book out from underneath the sofa. Kane didn’t even seem to mind the wrecked cushion, odd.

Travis presented the book to his father, who gazed open-mouthed in shock as he discovered the locks had been opened.

“Travis…we need to go.”
“Go where?”
“Somewhere safe.”
“But this is-”
“No it’s not!”
“But why?”
“No time.”
“What?”

After the exchange, Kane drew back the curtains on the window over the tiny fridge which looked out onto the street below.

The sun had been blotted out by dark clouds, and there was lightning, but no rain or thunder. Suddenly, something happened.

A bolt of lightning hit the middle of the street, and when it was gone, there stood a dark figure. he wore a set of dark plate-mail armor, polished so that it served as a mirror, a pair of black steel-toed boots with spikes over the toes, clawed gauntlets, and strangest of all, a black cape and hood with red lining. The hood was up, so they couldn’t see his face, but the entirety of the people who saw him were quivering in fear.

The man waved his hand, and about a thousand shadowy creatures carrying two swords, and wearing medieval helmets and ghostly chain-mail armor rose from the cracks in the ground and jerked and wiggled frantically, as if they were having a seizure. The people on the sidewalks all screamed and ran for cover, sending some of the beasts running after them.

“NO! LEAVE THEM!” their leader barked loud enough so that up to the 32nd floor could hear him as though he were right next to them.

“SPREAD OUT! FIND HIM! AND IF POSSIBLE, BRING ME HIS SON, DEAD OR ALIVE.” The man barked out his orders to these specters, and they complied. The beasts ran amuck around the town, kicking over street carts, cars, chopping park benches in two, and generally looking anywhere and everywhere they could.

“Well, there may be a thousand of them, but their not smart.” Travis commented.

“You won’t be saying that if they catch you, now come on!” Kane grabbed Travis by the wrist and hurried out, book in hand.