I have a feeling the only entertaining thing about this chapter will be that the title vaguely reminds me of Paranoia Agent.
" for the entire rest of this saga. A potential editing error? Who knows.
Not that it matters. Dude's just Linkara. Or BookLinkara if you wanna be super specific.
. Instead he keeps
. It's weird, and I
the reason is that our author uses italicized text for a mysterious voice of plot convenience, and feared that people might get confused or something.
"As usual, I've been led into a bad situation because of you."
"Well, forgive me for wanting to get to class on time."
Louis Woodstein sighed and sat back in the chair. He tapped the heel of his foot rapidly in impatience, waiting for his turn to go into the Principal's office. Louis was a fourteen-year-old freshman at Hillside High School, in the office of which he sat at now. He had short dark brown hair, which his hands were running through in a sign of stress. He blinked, looking at the reflection of himself in the glass opposite from him. He stared into his own eyes, seeing the slight bags under the hazy blue color. He slouched back in his chair, leaning his head back against the wall behind him.
The boy next to him was fifteen, but also a freshman. His hair was a lighter brown, his eyes considerably bluer than Louis'. He was sitting quite comfortably in his chair, a smirk on his face. His name was Trevor Hagen, a standard high-school freshman with an attitude so overconfident that it would've made Oliver North blush. He looked over at Louis, who was obviously upset over the situation that the two were in.
"'Let's run to our class, Louis! There'll be no problem, Louis!' Trevor, I'm going to be getting a friggin' detention now instead of a stupid tardy which would've been erased at the beginning of the next trimester!" Louis hissed at him.
Trevor rolled his eyes. "Oh jeez, Louis, get over it. Detentions happen, and you should get over it. It's not my fault. It was the Pass Nazi's fault."
"Well, the Pass Nazi goes on a regular schedule, and if you had given me a chance to actually check the damn sheet I had made of her movements, this whole thing would've been avoided." Louis stated.
"That's another thing, why are you swearing more often now? I thought you were Christian." Trevor said.
Louis looked over at him. "Just because I'm Christian doesn't mean I have to watch my language. We're high schoolers, dude. Sure, it's not exactly the most appropriate thing, but you have to adapt to the surroundings we're in now."
It was Trevor's turn to let out a disgruntled sigh. A slight creaking sound was heard as the door to the Principal's office opened up and a girl walked out of it and out of the main office.
"Louis, Trevor, you can come in, now."
The two boys stood up and walked inside the office, Louis closing it behind them. Principal Haldred sat at his desk, his hands folded together. Louis and Trevor sat down once more on the much more comfortable seats within the office. Haldred put on a pair of glasses, looking at the disciplinary report before him. Louis narrowed his eyes a little at his Principal. Even though he knew he was a kind man, there was one thing that television had made Louis distrust: bald men in glasses and a suit. Haldred put down the report and looked over the two.
"Would you care to explain your side of this?" he asked.
Louis leaned back in his chair, preparing to casually explain. "Well, I was having a conversation with Trevor here out in the hallway, and we sort of lost track of time. Realizing we had to get to class before the bell rang, we ran to get there. However, the Pass Nazi-"
"Amanda." Haldred interrupted, " Her name is Amanda."
"Yes. Right. Amanda. However, Amanda saw us running and gave us a detention slip because we were running. And now, because we argued with her about it, she sent us down here, and we've now missed more class than we would've if she had just let it slide." Louis explained.
Haldred looked over at Trevor. "Do you have anything to add?"
Trevor shook his head.
Haldred shrugged and replied, "Well, I have to partly agree with Amanda. Running through the halls is against school policy. However, because I understand the situation you were in, I'll let it slide. Make sure this doesn't happen again. I'd rather not have to begin the new trimester in two weeks with detentions with you two."
The two nodded and stood up, preparing to leave. Louis opened the door to the office and walked out with Trevor. The two quickly exited the main office and went back through the lobby of the high school. They waited until they were far away from the office before they spoke once more.
"We dodged the bullet that time." Trevor stated.
"Yes, we did. We are going to have to stop talking in the hallways. In fact, I might just have to stop speaking altogether." Louis replied.
"Yeah, I think there are a lot of people who would appreciate that." Trevor said with a smirk.
Louis glared at Trevor. "Oh, shut up."
Trevor grinned.
*
Louis stared out the window of the bus. He recalled all the events of the day, from the groggy and slow beginning in English to the attempted detention by the Pass Nazi to the open topic discussion in Mr. Korma's Civics class. Louis looked to the back of the bus, glaring at it in anger because the kids in the back were once again attempting to harass the bus driver. After the third insult, Louis finally shouted an insult back at them, and they were silenced.
He smiled, enjoying the fact that he had once again done his duty in slapping out the idiots in the society he lived in and defending his fellow human being. He quickly returned his eyes to the outside window, but yawned briefly from his tiredness. When he reopened his eyes after the yawn, he noticed a store outside. He raised an eyebrow in confusion, never having noticed the store before this point. Louis looked farther down the road, checking the road sign not far ahead. The bus was stopped at a stop light, giving him the time needed to see that he was on Terrance road, on his way to county road J. He looked back at the store that he had seen.
Because of the fact that he had never seen it before this day, Louis was surprised to notice that the store appeared to be rather old. The white paint that had been laid over the brick walls was discolored and chipping. The door to it was wooden, the corners showing obvious wear and a dead look to it. A worn out painted sign indicated the name of the store: "Antiques." He tried to peer in through the windows without luck, seeing only a very complicated wooden toy boat in one window, and a Grandfather clock in the other.
Louis.
"Yeah?" Louis called out, turning his head around.
Louis had expected to see someone sitting near him, because the voice that had spoken his name seemed clear and loud, like it was close by to him. However, there was no one near him that seemed to be indicating that they were the one who had spoken. He blinked and shook his head, thinking he had just imagined it. He turned his head back towards the window, but realized that the bus was moving once more. He sighed and thought of returning to it later to check it out.
*
Louis stepped off the bus and said goodbye to the bus driver. She smiled and returned the goodbye as she drove off, leaving Louis at the corner of Plains Avenue and Roselawn Drive. He smiled, looking up at the spring sun that shined down on him. He slung his book bag over his left shoulder and reached into his flannel over shirt pocket with his right hand. Out of it he pulled out a pair of sunglasses with a golden frame, and placed them over his eyes. This was his favorite pair because the dark glass used to protect his eyes covered only the eyes and nothing more. He walked down the streets and breathed in the relatively clean air of his neighborhood.
Louis walked in onto the driveway of his home, going up the slight slant and stopping at the entry code panel for his garage door. He lifted up the covering for it and typed in 1134. The door made a loud humming sound as it lifted up off of the ground and up to the ceiling of the garage. The two spots reserved for the cars were empty, indicating that his parents weren't home. He walked over to the entrance to the house and pressed the large gray button on the wall, shutting the garage door and opening the main door into the house.
"Hey, is anybody home?" he called out into the house. Louis was standing in the laundry room, a narrow hallway that held a washer, dryer, a closet, and a large sink. He wiped his feet on the mat on the floor.
"Yeah, I'm here, bro."
Walking past the door was Louis' brother, George. He stood a few inches taller than Louis, and despite the fact that he was 17, he looked about 21. His dark brown hair was long and tied back into a ponytail. He had a beard on his chin, and light blue sunglasses over his eyes.
His eyes were the thing that attracted the most attention. Around this iris was a golden ring that glowed when exposed to light. Around the golden ring was a hazy blue color that occasionally changed to a dark green. He wore a black T-shirt with a white over shirt, the sleeves rolled up to the elbows. He wore dark blue jeans with a black belt through them, black combat boots on his feet.
"Hey bro. Where are you heading off to?" Louis asked, putting his backpack down on a chair in the dining room.
"Kirsten's house. We're going to study for the Sociology Exam. And yes, Mom and Dad know." he said, grabbing his bag from the floor and walking past Louis.
"Okay, I just needed to know if I should cover for you or something." Louis said.
"See you later, bro." George said, walking out into the garage.
Louis merely nodded and allowed him to leave.
Louis.
Louis shivered and looked around himself, a cold chill running up his spine. He looked around himself, thinking there was someone else in the house with him. He glanced at all directions quickly, trying to discern where the voice had come from.
"Hello?" he called out weakly.
You must go, Louis.
Louis blinked and then raised an eyebrow. He continued looking around, still not certain as to the identity of the voice. It sounded somewhat like an adult male, but there seemed to be an underlying voice within it, that of a female child. And yet the vice versa also laid with it, with a male child and a female adult.
"Ooookaaaay... To whom am I speaking to?" Louis inquired.
You must leave this place, now.
"Why?"
Leave.
"Fine, fine. I've watched enough anime and science fiction to know that when a strange voice starts talking to you, you do what it said. Where should I go?"
To the first market that your eyes took notice of after the end of an era.
Louis was already putting on his coat and heading out back to the garage. He stopped when he heard the last thing spoken by the voice.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" he shouted.
Go to the first market that your eyes took notice of after the end of an era.
"I heard you the first time, couldn't you clarify a little?" he requested.
Go to the first market that your eyes-
"Oh, can the friggin' metaphor and just tell me where I'm going!"
-first took notice of after-
Louis grumbled loudly.
-the end of an era.
"I hope you rot in hell you stupid-"
Go to the-
"I'M GOING! I'M GOING!"
*
Louis closed his eyes briefly to savor the moment he was in. He was riding his bike on the sidewalk, the wind blowing at his face and cooling him down. He hadn't heard the strange voice since he left his home, and was quite thankful for that.
"God forbid any strange voice that someone hears is anything but cryptic. Oh well, I guess I should probably try to figure out what they meant." He said to himself.
Louis pulled on the handlebars, which doubled as the brakes. The bike came to a slow stop, making a slight screeching sound. Louis got off of it and pulled it to the side, underneath a tree to get out of the sun. He sat down after putting the bike against the tree.
"'Go to the first market that your eyes took notice of after the end of an era.' Okay, what do they mean by 'end of an era?' Nothing ended recently except the second trimester..." Louis stated.
Immediately, he snapped his fingers, realizing that that had been what they were referring to.
"Okay, then! 'Go to the first market your eyes took notice of after the second trimester.' All right, my eyes took notice of something I saw. 'Go to the first market you saw after the second trimester.' Market... Let's see... Okay, a mall? Some shops? Maybe just one shop?" he speculated.
He looked up and snapped his fingers once more. "The antique shop! That antique shop I checked out! 'Go to the antique shop you saw after the second trimester!'"
Louis leapt up, pulling his bike with him, and got back on it. He immediately began peddling, recalling in his thoughts the location of the shop along the road.
*
Louis pressed his hands tightly on the handlebars, stopping the bike in front of the shop. He looked it over, bringing up the image of what it had looked like when he had seen it out of the bus window before. The door still looked rotten and weak, the paint chipped and discolored. Louis parked his bike outside the shop, leaning it against a part of it. He looked up, as if attempting to communicate with a higher power.
"Okay, weird voice. Do I go in?" he asked.
There was no response. Louis smiled and suggested, "Or perhaps I just had a touch of insanity, and I should head back to my home-"
Go inside.
Louis laughed. "Yeah, that's what I thought."
Louis took hold of the handle on the door and opened it. A bell jingled a little to indicate that someone had entered, and the attendant at the nearby counter looked up from the magazine he read for a brief moment before returning to it. He looked over 65, with gray hair and wrinkly skin, a pair of reading glasses over his eyes. He obviously didn't seem to take his job too seriously. Louis shrugged at the man's reaction and began to explore the shop.
Wooden shelves lined the walls up and down, filled with wooden trinkets and objects made of copper. The main wall had model ships of ages ranging from fifty to two hundred years. Their sizes varied, one of a small houseboat and another a Spanish naval ship. He walked closer to it to investigate, looking over for a British vessel that he might be able to give to his science teacher Mr. Wainright. Wainright was of British origin, and Louis thought he might give a gift to one of his favorite teachers. He found one particular one, a wooden model of one of the ships used by the British to defeat the Spanish armada when they had attempted to invade and conquer England back in the 1600s.
Louis examined the floor beneath him a little, mentally noting the creaking sound made when walking over it. It was, like most of the objects or architecture of the store, made of wood. The gray color of the floor indicated that this particular wood was dead, and had been so for a long time. Louis continued by speculating that this place had had a different sort of purpose a long time ago, but now was just the shop that it was.
"Okay, Louis, it's time to analyze the facts once more. About half an hour ago, you first saw this store and thought that someone had spoken to you, but you thought it was just your imagination. When you got home, the voice spoke again, desperate to get you here, but couldn't flat out tell you to do it. And now you're here, walking around an old antique shop that you've never been to before." Louis spoke to himself. Suddenly, his
eyes got wide and he slapped himself on the forehead. "And you didn't e-mail Mom to tell her you'd be leaving! Argh!"
Louis sighed, but then shrugged. "Well, if this is anything like TV, books, movies, anime, etc., there'll probably be something incredible or extraordinary here that will make that seem rather insignificant in my mind."
Louis chuckled and sighed, shaking his head a little. "Life's not a TV show, Louis. Stop fooling yourself. Hell, I might just find a nice gift for somebody. I mean, this is a pretty decent store, despite the fact that if a strong enough gust of wind came by this place would fall over like a ton of bricks."
Louis suddenly realized that while he had been talking to himself, he'd been walking through the aisles of the store. He was now in a section with armors and weapons. He raised an eyebrow, examining the dusty metallic objects lining the shelves. Swords and daggers were in glass display cases, probably the cleanest of the items in this particular aisle. The armors' colors varied, from gold to copper to silver and many more. The torso armors were hanging from the top shelves. Louis decided to look down at eye level to see what he could find. There were gauntlets of varying color and size at eye level. He smiled, the image of himself punching Osama Bin Laden in the face with one of the gauntlets on appearing in his head.
However, one gauntlet suddenly stuck out from the rest of them. It was golden, and there was dust and cobwebs covering it. It was about a foot and a half long, with golden armoring covering all sides. He reached onto the shelf and pulled it out, some cobwebs coming with it that had been attached to the shelf. Louis looked it over, one eyebrow raised.
"I wonder...” he said to himself.
Louis slipped his hand inside of it, pushing slightly into the gauntlet. He felt a soft interior, surprisingly enough, almost like velvet. When his hand got through to the other end, there were five rings attached to the ending sides for the fingers to slide through. It was a perfect fit.
"Heh, maybe I should just buy-"
Louis stopped talking. He had just looked up from the gauntlet, and he was no longer in the antique shop. He was now in a dense forest.
"OH CRAP!" he shouted.
: The Greatest Adventure. Maybe.
