Beyond The World [ chapter 1 ] -Final-

Final Part

‘Um…’ Oliver cleared his throat and hopefully he’d get rid of his anxious, before he began. ‘Alter Reality is a condition of a phenomenon whereby someone will experience another memory that the person may think exist, but not for the others. Dated 1765, a German psychologist Dietrich Lewin had wrote an article on this phenomenon about his patient who came to see him and claimed that he saw and had visions about the early signs of the Doomsday. He also professed that he heard voices even when no ones were around. He said it was a gift from God but later, he was found drown at the beach. Dr. Dietrich said his last note found in his patient’s pocket said that he was trying to flee from a terrible catastrophe, only there was none…”

Oliver stuttered. ‘D-does this mean that I’m going to be crazy too…?’ He uttered, as his voice began to tremble so horribly that he couldn’t pronounce his next words. His face looked pale, and his heart plunged as the words he read earlier kept hitting him like falling bricks.

‘Don’t be silly.’ Sarah suddenly nudged him on his shoulder.

 ‘It is there… but it’s not exactly there...’ She read a small phrase at the lower left of the page.  The phrase wasn’t typed like the other sentences, but it was a scribble made by a very sharp pen, judging from the almost tear page. Inky black, it was clearly made by someone who had read it before.

At that moment Sarah suddenly took the book away from him, keeping it neatly on her laps with both of her palms covering it. She didn’t think Oliver saw the words. ‘I don’t think you should believe all this crap. You’ll be fine.’ She said, her voice emphasizing the last word. At the edge of her voice Oliver could obviously noticed the guilty lilt, probably because she thought she’d made him felt worse than before. She tried to gesture a gentle smile, before she proceeded with a soft, guilt-ridden laugh. Oliver must’ve thought that there’re must be an explanation or rationalisation to everything that happened.

‘It’s okay. Of course I’m not buying all of these stuffs, but I just want to read them.’ He forced himself to a smile, and let out a heavy sigh as he offered his hand to Sarah, signaling her to pass the book back. Reluctantly, she did so after curving her lips to a pout.

‘You’re…‘high’ again, buddy?’ Out of a sudden Tyler said, before yawning in his bleary face after he woke up. Stretching his arms out, he drowsed for a while before as he slowly opened his eyes to see the male in front of him was sending him a death glare. Judging from his statement he must’ve heard about Oliver’s hallucination. ‘I AM NOT HIGH!’ Oliver declared word by word, hopefully clear enough for Tyler to register it in his dysfunctional brain.

But unfortunately, it was loud enough for Marcie and Halen who were sitting at the next table to hear him and then cupped their mouths with their hands, probably starting a new gossip or maybe trying to compete who can come out with the best negative saying about him. And when they started to giggle, Oliver knew he was right.

Now about half of the library was watching the three of them, wide eyed. Just when the thing was about to get even worse, the school bell rang. And of course, as predicted, everyone hollered, grabbing their bags and ran for the exit, just like the thing they do when they heard the principal was running amok in the school hall with a new whip. Well, hypothetically.

The books were left on the tables, and from Oliver’s seat he could see Mrs. Liu, the school librarian teacher on duty looked miff. He bet the teacher had imagined she was choking the students to death until they were willing to admit wrong for behaving towards books like that.

Sarah closed up behind the male beside her after she saw the teacher grabbed any student she could reach and unluckily, it was a student who just crumpled a paper and threw it on the floor. She gave him a lethal glare, and she was more than ready to swallow the poor student alive.

 And Oliver came to notice that the sign of his class teacher wasn’t around. Without Sarah and Tyler noticing, he deftly slipped the book into his backpack, zipping it close. In about less than 2 minutes later the library was already empty, and everything was in disorder, a total mess. The books were left in clutter, not to mention the chairs weren’t slid back into their places. Had to say, the students got their nerves on several occasions only, like the starting of school’s holiday. 

But the truth was that the chaos helped them to forget what Oliver had said just then. By now he could let out a sigh of relief, but it wasn’t for long. He had to crack to mystery or find out about the thing happening to him, otherwise he’ll get crazy. Or he believed so.

‘Let’s go.’ Tyler said, sliding his backpack over his shoulder. He worked himself to a right swerve of the library, taking the other exit.

Once they were out, Oliver scuttled among the crowds, leaving Sarah and Tyler behind.

‘Oliver, wait up!’ Sarah yelled from the hordes but she lost him.

As she was about to pace up to find him, someone grabbed her hand. She spun around to see Tyler was holding her elbow, before he slightly shook his head. 

End of chapter 1

Beyond The World [ chapter 1 ] -part 4-

Part 4

Oliver thought it was a little weird that she invited Tyler over to her house. It’s not like he’s in the same niche as her, and they rarely talk to each other. Nevertheless, Oliver was well aware that they had some sort of ‘history’ before.

‘Well, be careful. You know her stories.’ He said over to Tyler. After he saw the male in front him nodded, he reached for his backpack, fumbling each corner and pulled out his mp3 player. Then he set his backpack on an empty chair beside him.

As he plugged the earphone into his ears, he saw Sarah and Tyler were talking, and their mouths were moving, but he couldn’t listen to what they’ve said. A few moments after that, he saw Mr. Barnes was standing at the front door, his arms crossed and his eyes were like eagle watching his students, afraid they would somehow blow the library. Once he called Seth over to him and gave him a 5 minutes lecture for goofing around instead of doing what he said. Oliver sat lower, covering his face with the book to hide him using the earphone from his teacher.

He shifted his gaze from his book to outside the window, where he could see the sky slowly turning gloomy and weird masses of clouds were taking over the sun’s place. The wind suddenly got wild and shook the trees out there vigorously, threatening to pull out every single vines they could find. Birds were scampering in all direction, looking for shelter and Oliver saw a big raven steadily landed on a branch outside the window, its eyes were locked towards him.

It seemed like there was a storm coming, but Oliver could tell that it wouldn’t happen. It was almost similar to the thing happened at the time he went with his yacht club for 2 days to sail about a year ago. The sign of storm was there, but there wasn’t a drop of water around. But it made all the compasses turned crazy, spinning in all direction. And the communication system was disturbed, which caused his short voyage to be longer than scheduled.

Now he suddenly realised that the raven still watching him, and he watched back. He scrutinised the bird, before the raven’s eyes suddenly shone bright red, like the colour of ruby. ‘Um…Sarah, check out the raven out there. Doesn’t it seem kind of weird?’ Oliver said without even looking at her.

Sarah peered from her book, looking at where Oliver was watching. She stared outside, before she said, ‘what raven? I don’t see any.’ She turned at him to see that Oliver looked perplexed, his eyes never blinked. It was as if he was under some state of magic, and Sarah knew that the direction he was staring at wasn’t the trees or raven outside, but something else, which wasn’t there.

‘Oliver, Oliver!’ She snapped her finger right in front of his face, causing him to flinch and he almost fell from his chair. ‘W-what…’ He blinked twice, before he realised that he was staring at an empty branch outside the window. His earphone dropped down onto his laps and he didn’t bother to put them back on. The trees and wind looked fine, and the creepy clouds weren’t there like he saw earlier. He shut his eyes close and let out a heavy sigh.

‘It…happened again?’ Out of a sudden Sarah asked, her voice sounded worried. Oliver spun around towards her to find out they were eye-to-eye contact. Her glittering hazel eyes gleamed, and there was a speck of curiosity and concern at the edge of her eyes. He looked down before he proceeded with a small nod. Then he turned himself towards the table again and saw Tyler was fitfully sleeping from over his book. Sarah stood from her chair, before she made her way to one of the book shelves after she gave Oliver a pat or two on his shoulder.

Oliver couldn’t concentrate. The more he tried to perceive something written in the book, the more the images kept playing, rewound, and played back in his head. It wasn’t the first time as he had this ‘illusion’ since the trip, and he believed it won’t be the last too. What could this mean…? Was there any hidden meaning behind all of these images? Or did he possess some kind of ability to forecast something now? His brain was crammed with questions.

‘Should I do something about this…?’ He deemed inside his heart hesitantly. As he was about to stand up, Sarah came by his side, placing a book in front of him. It was about twice the thickness of the old dictionary he had at his house, and it looked…fishy.

He slowly removed the other female’s hand which was covering the title of the book and read it, ‘Secrets behind Dreams.’ Then he shot her with a weird are-you-for-real look. From his point he could see she smiled softly, before proceeding with a small nod. ‘I bet there’s something in this book that can help you out.’ Sarah said as she began flipping through the book, looking for a particular content. ‘Let see…’ As her hands busy rifling through the book, she lowered herself on the nearest chair she could reach.

Oliver then took a seat beside her, as he helped her looking from over her shoulder. As they reached about third quarter of the book, Sarah paused. Both her hands held firmly at both sides of the hardcover, before her finger pointed to a small heading at the center of the left page. ‘I think this is it.’ She whispered softly, but loud enough to express her astonishment and for Oliver to hear her. ‘Really? Where?’ The male beside him said as he took charge of the book, his mind was trying so hard to extract the information and recall the place where Sarah had pointed. 

“Alter Reality”

Beyond The World [ chapter 1 ] -part 3-

Part 3

 He scanned his student card at the counter, placed his backpack at the nearby table and walked to the politic section. Not being familiar with the library, he had a rough time looking for the book he was searching for. For some reason he could sense the world was spinning at the moment he stepped into the library, puzzling him like the Distorted World did at the theme park. He took out the paper from his pocket, holding it in front of his eyes with two fingers as he carefully examined the book racks. As the time he pulled a book entitled ‘Population and Poverty in the Developing World,’ the empty hole in front of him suddenly filled with a face. ‘Hey, Oliver!’ The person appointed him. ‘Gahhh..!’ Oliver startled, and almost dropped his book. He took a step back and secured a deep breath, stabilizing his blood pressure. 

‘Sarah…!’ he cried. In the cervices of the books and shelves, he saw the female walked at the opposite isle and took a left corner towards him. She smiled. And the next moment after that, Oliver found himself face to face with her, which made him froze and red. 

‘What are you looking for?’ The female said softly, trying to peek over the front cover of the book he was holding in his arms. She wore simple jeans, and a cardigan with a white shirt she made as an inner. It was simple, but she looked nice as usual, matching her long brunette hair that hung a little bit lower over her shoulder. She owned a pair of beautiful hazel eyes that Oliver sometimes felt envy of it. Sometimes when she asked compellingly, her eyes would glitter amazingly, and hypnotised each of everyone who looked at it to fulfill her request. It was her secret weapon as a beautiful damsel, Oliver thought. 

‘Politics…’ Oliver snorted. ‘I hate politics. What about you?’ 

Sarah showed the front cover to him. ‘World History.’ She simply said back, but her lilt showed that she wasn’t interested as well. ‘Hey, you’re late right? Where did you go?’ Suddenly she turned curious and asked him. She stared at him as if she won’t blink without an answer, and her arms akimbo. 

‘Err…I got into some trouble, never mind me.’ Oliver replied, as he perused through the book that he just took. He placed the book back into its place before taking another one, flipping the pages like he did on the first one. ‘Oh yea, where’s Tyler?’ He said to the female but his eyes remained glued to the book. He tapped his finger on the hardcover of the book as he walked to the table where he left his backpack in the first place. Sarah followed him and took a seat next to him. 

‘I don’t know. He was here just now…’ She said, her eyes lingering around the library, probably scanning for the male that Oliver asked about. About ten seconds after that, she turned her look towards the male next to him and suddenly she covered the page he was reading with her palms.

‘What’s wrong..?’ He turned over to her and asked. 

‘Tell me about your “problem”.’ She said, gesturing with her hands as she made two quote signs with her fingers on the air. Maybe she saw him bumped into the principal and wanted a full report of it. 

‘What problem?’ Suddenly Tyler came, setting himself seated in front of Oliver and Sarah. He brought two books, as he carefully aligned them together and put them into his Nike backpack. He raised his eyebrows as he tilted his head, and his expression told them that he’s interested as well. 

‘Where were you?’ Oliver said, hoping that he would be able to change the topic. He didn’t want his friend to know the other part of their principal. The whole school would know about it. He flipped through another page of his book, pretending to scrutinise on each word and make himself busy.   

‘I was…speaking with Marcie.’ He said, as the moment he mentioned the name, Oliver and Sarah gawked, giving him a weird look. 

‘Marcie..? You don’t mention Marcie and speaking with in the same sentence.’ Sarah looked concerned, as she leaned closer to the table, probably to avoid other students to hear them. Her eyes never left Tyler, as Oliver now leaned closer. ‘I agree with her, man. You should stay away from that woman.’

Tyler gave out a heavy breath, as he threw his body to the chair, his eye balls were scanning the perimeter in case she might be around, watching them. He scratched the bridge of his nose before he said, ‘She…just asked me to her summer party at her beach house’. Oliver didn’t seem surprised, but Sarah was a different story. She looked like she’s going to blow, but she kept her sanity for the time being. She guessed that Tyler wouldn’t go to the party. And she hoped she was right. 

Everyone knew that Marcie was everyone’s enemy, except for those rich brats. Marcie always pretended to be nice to people and she would assure them that she’s their friend. But the truth was undeniable; she was only trying to delve into people’s big secrets before she could announce them officially on the school’s microphone. She remembered how Marcie insulted Maya, a girl who came from a needy family with terrible names and talked bad about her deceased father. For some reason, she’s like a devil wearing a human mask. At least that was what posted by an unknown and unsatisfied person about her at the school’s bulletin board. 

Would Tyler be her next victim?

Beyond The World [ Chapter 1 ] -part 2-

Part 2

Oliver walked down the stairs, taking a right corner to the library and hoped for one thing, that he wouldn’t bump into the school’s principal. His principal was known and famous for one thing, that he always there to look for the students’ mistakes. Oliver vividly recalled the principal made his debut on his second day of service where he whipped two students three times each for starting a food fight. He fastened his pace, but luck wasn’t with him this time. Principal Norman opened the office door, where he and Oliver suddenly were eye-to-eye contact. Oliver had a hard time swallowing his saliva at the moment he saw his principal’s eyes, which was greenish-yellow, but the yellow seemed to be overpowering the green, and made his eyes nothing much like the python’s. He thought that the principal had been lurking there all time, waiting for him. He couldn’t feel his legs anymore.

‘M-morning Principal Norman.’ For heaven’s sake Oliver felt that those words were reluctant to come out from his mouth, as if they were afraid as well. He self-inspected himself before the man stood before him did, looking for any portholes that the man could find to sink him down. Necktie, checked. Sleeves, checked. He muttered under his ragged breath. ‘Ah, Mr. Clay. Do you have a time?’ He gently said, opening the door a bit wider. Oliver looked at him plainly and he could only assume one thing, he wanted him to come into his office. Would he get strangled to death in there? Oliver deemed in his heart.

He wanted to say that he needed to go to the school library, but that probably wasn’t the answer Principal Norman would want to hear. ‘Oh…okay.’ He nodded obediently and walked carefully into the office, each step was analyzed in case there’re any booby traps. The air conditioner blew a chilling welcome as Oliver stepped inside, prickling deep into his skin. There was a small round glass table and a two-seater upholstered couch at the end of the room, purposely placed for the parents. Oliver noticed the fresh smell of air and the picture of a beautiful garden on the wall, along with the principal’s certificates, which surprised him. Then, the atmosphere slowly turned warm and cozy. He imagined some kind of evil atmosphere, suffocating every student to death. Or a list of people who felt his whip engraved permanently on the wall.  That moment his mind gone blank, as if there was a mental traffic jam happened and Oliver tried so hardly fighting off the bad images in his mind. 

‘Mr. Clay?’ Oliver stunned. It took his principal three times calling his name for him to answer. 

‘Yes, sir?’

‘Would you care for some tea?’ Principal Norman asked, pouring some tea into two cups. The cool air of the room and the hot water created thin steam that vaporised quickly in the air. Black Citron tea, the student assumed from the smell. The principal placed a small plate and a cup of tea in front of Oliver, as he sat gently on his mesh chair, before he leaned forward, reaching for the sugar in the middle of the table. He plopped down a cube into his cup before slowly stirring it in a clockwise direction. Oliver copied him, but he waited for his principal to take a sip first. Every second felt forever with him assuming that the principal might as well waiting for him to have a sip first before him, and then burst to an evil laugh. Then the images faded as he saw the old man in front him took a gentle sip. Once he did that, then all the doubts Oliver had about him were washed away. He saw the old man’s glasses were covered in steam when he pulled away, and then quickly turned clear again. But this time his eyes weren’t yellow or green, but light brown that matched his fatherly mien.

‘What makes him so nice today? Or does he have something in mind? Maybe he took a vaccine so he won’t get poisoned by the tea…’ The questions remained floating in his head, unanswered. 

‘Can you see the beautiful picture of a garden right there? My daughter took it.’ Principal Norman said, pointing with his teaspoon. ‘She did know how to see the beauty in something…’ He continued, before he took another sip of his tea. Oliver remembered. His daughter was killed in an accident 2 years ago. A drunk driver, and a hit and run case, according to the police. Oliver rammed his mind for history. He knew if it hadn’t been because of the accident, Linda would have been the same age as him, 16. 

‘It sure is beautiful, just like her.’ He didn’t think of what he wanted to say, but it was probably something to cheer him up. He knew there was a soft spot deep in Principal Norman’s heart. She was his only child. Since that day, every time Principal Norman took over a teacher’s class, he would be preaching about avoiding dangerous things, like cigarettes, alcohol and drugs.  And he also always gave the students a piece of his mind about respecting the elders and loving their family. That’s explained why he was being so stern towards problem makers. Oliver remembered. Linda was his third friend that he met during first day of high school, after Sarah and Tyler. 

‘You know, young man,’ Principal Norman said, before he continued, ‘Sarah told me quite a lot about you and your friends. She…’

About thirty minutes after that, and after thanking him on the drink, Oliver left the principal’s office and scurried to the library. When he reached there, he didn’t see any sign of Mr. Barnes around. He had a clean record with him, but the truth was that his heart rate was high. It could be his first.

Beyond The World [ Chapter 1 ] -part 1-

Part 1

Chapter 1

 ‘Mr. Sullivan. Mr. Sullivan, are you present?’ Mr. Barnes looked up, scanning the whole class when he wasn’t answered. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, before he slowly sighed, putting an ‘O’ sign at the attendance book. Although the all-time class ditcher didn’t present, but there was still a sign of concern showed in his mien. He stood up as he took off his glasses, setting it on the table before taking a deep breath.

 ‘Listen here, class. I…do not know what is the most priority thing that you’re thinking in your life. Maybe you think that study isn’t that important. I know you’re sick and tired of all those exams, tests, assignments and homework. But trust me, I know how it feels. I was a student too. But, education is probably the most obvious line that differs all of the CEOs of the companies and the homeless beggars out there. It is…’ Mr. Barnes kept on giving his preaches, but Oliver bet nobody was listening. He saw Samantha and Halen were giggling so loudly at the back of the class, despite the fact that Mr. Barnes was talking in front. 

Oliver looked over to Mitch’s place, which was only next to him. He assumed that Mitch was probably at his friend’s place, playing poker and watching movies together. It could be Jake’s place, Sam’s place or Carl’s. Yeah, maybe that’s what made him not coming to school today. He once asked Oliver to cut school with him one day to go to the newly opened arcade. However, Oliver was lucky enough to reject his offer. It was the day that Officer Frederick and his team raided the place, causing five students of Malency High School to face the principal, and suffered a day or two of difficulty to sit or sleep. Everyone knew that the principal had a ‘lethal’ whip. But, thinking about the incident, made Oliver chuckle. Although Mitch was popular among the discipline teachers, he also happened to be one of the top 20 students. 

To be honest, he actually felt guilty seeing his teacher talking in front of the class, probably for 5 minutes now, but no one paid any attention. So, he shifted his gaze from outside the window to the front class. He felt weird now. He thought he just saw a bird outside the window, mimicking his expression and making fun of him. Pinching the region between his eyes with two fingers, he tried to keep his focus not to mention his sanity. ‘So, for the holiday’s homework…’ Mr. Barnes spoke, before slamming a dictionary of 3 inches thick onto the table. ‘Bang..!’ The thud sound made the whole class turned extremely quiet, before it continued with a small ‘pop’ sound made by Billy the Chewy who was chewing a gum. That moment, he quickly spit it out and wrapped it in a paper. The whole class looked pale. Even Diane, the class-chatter and also happened to be the daughter of the city’s police chief was speechless. 

‘Does anyone have anything to say? Please step forward so everyone can hear about it. Mrs. Stewart? Perhaps you can share something with us?’ Mr. Barnes pointed directly to Diane with a chalk even when he’s facing the blackboard. It was like he had another eye at the back of his head. Oliver had to admit he was left agape like a stupid carp fish when his teacher almost stopped the chalk at him, before moving it to Diane.

‘No sir.’ Diane slowly replied, before lowering her face as Mr. Barnes turned to the class, definitely to avoid any eye-contact with her teacher. 

Mr. Barnes cleared his throat. ‘So, as I said. Each of you will take a piece of paper in this box, for the topic of the assignment for the holiday. Then, you may go to the school’s library to make an early research. I’ll be watching.’ He stated as he sat down, writing some notes into his planner. Oliver noticed that the person at the teacher’s desk made a quick scribble on the paper before he raised his pen about a foot in the air, took aim and made a full stop the page. It made an earsplitting sound and all of his students believed he had pierced through his planner, or maybe made a hole at the desk. The first person who dared enough to die was Brandon, the teacher’s pet as he stood and walked to the front desk, followed by Wilbert, Kate and so on. The last person was him. 

‘Thank you Mr. Barnes.’ Oliver said as he reached down into the box, fumbling for the last piece of paper.

‘No problem, Mr. Clay. Have a nice holiday.’ He gave his student a half smile, which Oliver thought was sincere.

Yeah, it’s true. It was Friday. In the next 6 hours the school will be jammed with the students screaming, yelling and the school hall will be filled with papers and homework. It was the day before a long holiday break. Yup, summer break. Probably the best moment for those rich brats who planned to go for some luxury vacations and get themselves pampered. Oliver opened the paper. [Future of a Child in a Developing World]

‘Shoot…’ Oliver muttered under his breath as he walked out of the class. On his way to the library, he purposely sauntered along the hall, taking the long way and past the bulletin board. The first thing that came to his notice was a big digital clock, about the size of a large pizza box, which was precisely and cautiously calculating the countdown for the holiday. At the first glance Oliver knew it belonged to Adam, as he once saw the clock at his place when he threw a party earlier this year. It thoughtfully read 05:57:36. The second thing was the usual. Oliver saw a red brassiere being pinned onto the board, with a note and a name ‘Marcie’ attached to it. Not only that, there were notes about the teachers and Ben, the school bully. Needless to say, he supposed that those notes were negative. Although he had to admit all of the teachers at Malency High were ‘different’. He neatly folded his assignment and kept it in his front pocket.