The Incarnate

Chapter 23: The Incarnate

 

 

 

           

As the day resumed itself, Trev was worried he should go back to sleep. Which when he grew startled by the field trip being today, he thought he should get some money from one or both his parents. But found he’d spent little of his money last night. He had a lot now from previous odd jobs and endeavors, including buying and selling. He’d gotten some of it during the holidays, but it wasn’t exactly left over. It was however, when he decided to ask his mom anyway she gave him thirty on top of that. He was pleased. He had extra to spend and holed up in the bathroom for a while. While he took a shower and receded to his room. The thirty would only cover the admission, he was counting the rest and had around ninety overall. He made for preparations, somehow, though he didn’t have the clothes picked out for tomorrow. His mother would be gone and dad would be working. Coming out for the rest of the time of the late night, maybe getting high for a while, he wasn’t quite sure if he could or not. Considering his dad wouldn’t leave the living room for hours on end. He casually strolled to the back porch, not even looking at his father when he did so. Entering back inside his house at about 12:32 a.m. Going to sleep for upwards of three hours, out of his rest at the time of second block. He knew getting to school was imperative, considering he was late. The first bet was to call David. Luckily, he was indeed still at home. “Well, I’m not going to school today, bro.”

            “That’s okay, dude. If you’ll take me, I’ll trade you a sexy b***h in the future.” Trevor told him. “haha. Why do you want to be there so badly today?”

            “There’s a field trip and I should probably be there. I’ve already heavily prepared for it.”

“Alright. Be ready in fifteen.”

 

            “Okay. Got it.” Trevor got ready expediently. Drinking some coffee while keeping an eye on the clock and out the window, he watched David roll-up just about on time. He walked out the front door with a chip on his shoulder. He got in the truck with haste. Slugging his fairly light backpack mostly filled with stuff for the field trip. Not needing his books today and didn’t have to turn them in either. So no reason to take them with him. His friend looked somewhat weary, clutching the steering-wheel loosely in the early-afternoon. “What up?”

            “Nothing, last night was crazy.” He said. “For sure. How you doin’?”

            “Need my sleep, my man.”

            “Word. I’m ready to go whenever you are.”

            David started shuffling around while stopped at a light. He pulled out a dark colored cig and put it in his mouth and lit it. He offered one to Trevor. Trevor put it in his mouth and struck a lighter. “It is pretty good. Got a sweet taste that sticks.”

            “Yeah, I picked some up at the store last night and forgot until I got in the truck.” He said. “Ah, well, I’ve never had one. Nice find.”
            “Finder’s keepers.” He said while shaking the pack. Trevor chuckled and said nice again. Arriving in the parking lot of the school and took the back entrance/exit inside, going the long way to class. He arrived in third period history. Everyone was sitting quietly. He was sweating slightly from the walk and the latent journey there. He did remember to put on deodorant this morning. He could smell it tickling his nostrils. Sitting down with ease, somewhat relieved the class had remained silent. He opened his mouth in class for once. He asked one of his well-known classmates. “What’s everyone doing?”

            “Waiting for the teacher to come in.” he said. “ah…”

            Trevor waited promptly with the rest of the class. His teacher got in about ten minutes later and began addressing the class commandingly. She told them all that they’d be leaving to meet their English teachers in front of the school to head out to the renaissance festival. He raised his hand in response. She acknowledged his gesture. “Isn’t the field trip for next period?” he asked. “Yes. But, were getting ready early to get there. We won’t be able to enjoy the festival if we leave any later.”

            “Oh, excellent.” He murmured. They began to vacate the school. Sure enough, the buses were lined and outside. There was a large crowd.  It was the better half of an hour before all students made it on their transports and luckily, Trev had pissed all the coffee out of his system before boarding. Large-faceted Charter-style buses, made for a semi-boring trek to the fest and left him feeling calm and slightly unenthused. He sat near Caroline, and a few other classmates he would lightly associate with. He glanced at her a few times. He chose to ask her a question. Any question. “What are you gonna do when we get there?” he said with terse sincerity. “Probably check out each little shop and see what they have. She said.. “Oh, nice. I’ll probably just eat a turkey leg and try to find those I can talk to.” He sort-of giggles, which was unbecoming, but he flattened out his demeanor without a trace. “You know they’ll most likely have us in large groups to travel around in.” She stated with a smirk. “Well, I’ll have to try not to stray.” She just kind of smiled back. Going back to sitting, half-wittingly looking to the far-side window, “That was a decent conversation.” He thought. Time was non-existent as a discernable point turned into a doldrum of riding along. When they stopped; they were here.

           

Looking out through the door of the bus across an expansive field at the entrance to the Ren. Festival, Trevor climbed off and could feel a trace of excitement in the flux of his consciousness. He neared the gate mostly with his class, yet walking alone. He walked in until he reached the basin of the establishments. A slew of members of them followed; laying out their plans. Holding his fist by his side and looking out with uncertainty, but with vigor, he followed some of them down to the arena where they held a variety of events. The joust was going to begin. He wanted to see it. Indeed, it was as intense and inscrutable as he imagined. Two men in authentic knight armor, a pair of horses, and jousting poles stood adjacent and charged each other in a barrage of clomping, clanking metallic suits, and uprooted dirt and straw. One fell and the other did not, though he took about as ferocious a blow as the one on the ground. One word to describe such being valiant.  Trevor didn’t read as much into it. The animosity and carnage in full spectacle was enough for the amusement and more-so the precision and self-sacrifice put into it. Trevor walked away with pooling adrenaline and dwindling tenacity. He wanted to calm himself a bit. He took a rest in a nice area where there were no thick crowds and some nice seats. Contemplating where to go next, he knew he’d been here before. This was where he turned to go up and then down to the arena. But, how’d he get here this time? He wasn’t sure. Now, understanding for the most part, but not totally sure what to make of the whole thing. It wasn’t something he would normally be interested in. Nothing besides music and wanting to make it (you know aside from a certain hellacious interpersonal relationship). With that, it could be said he also was intrigued by everything. Trying hard not to get up and find something else, because he didn’t want to move, he was intercepted by a friend from elementary school. A regular black-guy named Harold, who not only made an attractive offer, but suggested they get stoned here-and-now. “At the festival?” Trevor squelched. “Yes. Lets do it.”

            “Alright!” he said sardonically, mostly because he didn’t believe him. This was going to be fun. They tread discretely, yet steadfast to a constellation of tents that were the restrooms. He pulled out two mid-sized cigars of bud and announced commencing by setting one ablaze. It was tranquil and fine. “It’s up to you we can or we can’t. If were going to we should light it up and pass it around. I just didn’t know if you’d planned on keeping any on you after were done.” Trevor elaborated. “Oh, word. I wasn’t sure myself.” He went ahead and lit the other blunt. There may or may not have been smoke bellowing out of the so-called stall. He wasn’t too paranoid, but still aware. They were high out of their minds with completion. The session left him distancing himself from the bathroom encampment swiftly. They stuck together for a time, maintaining distance and perched at the utility section as people conversed below the tree in a part of the lower-portion of the festival. They returned to the seated area where they’d started soon. They both sat and talked about where they might go to find their groups. They heard a resounding gasp from a direction off to the left. Trevor gawked for a minute or so as crowds separated in the midst of something occurring. He stood up and worked his way over to an angle among the disheveled faces as a person that was patiently waiting in line was lying on the ground. Trev wasn’t sure if it was the heat or something else, but he kept looking over him until he’d awoken with help from the few around. Though he had some distance. Presumptuously his friends or relatives. Harold had gone off somewhere else, and he wondered for a minute or so what he would do if he got caught. Trotting to the piece of the compound that many stands and stalls were, for a second thinking he’d caught sight of his actual classmates. Then he saw directly to his immediate left and gazed up at the shop he was beside. A mask design boutique, a walk-in one, only somebody was scanning the shelf of pieces resembling creative masks. He saw from a backward perspective that who he was looking at unwittingly was ardently pretty. He turned into a step next to her and recognized her as the very same that helped him through his early school years. Time had flown-by, and she noticed his presence. He shyly put his hands on one of the masks, scratching the plaster with a cautious touch. He flicked his eyes up to look at her and saw she was turning her eyes away. A sign that there was something unbecoming of him, yet she was smiling thinly in her cast-off gaze. He then spoke. “What might it be that you were looking at?”

            “Nothing, I was texting and looking at the info pamphlet.” She said.. He saw that she wrinkled the packet in her hand and was putting her phone away. “Ah, trying to find something to go?”

            “Yes. There’s not really much left that interests me.” She responded. “Well, this place is fairly nice. With the masks and statues and stuff…”

            “I know. That’s why I came here.” She smirked. “That would make sense. I could also assume you like this kind of stuff.”

            “Not particularly, piqued my attention for a minute so I came to check it out.”

“So… how has high school been?” he asked her. “Rather dull actually. Oh, I enjoy my schoolwork, and uhh, there’s been some highlights, but I never have time to take for myself. Not that I’d know what to do with it.” With that she giggled. “Shall I leave you to it?” he posed. “Mmm… yes. I’ll see you… sometime?”

 

            “Hopefully before graduation!” he said as he carried himself off. He made up to the top of the hill that was the right-half of the renaissance fair. There wasn’t much to see up there besides the animals. He crossed a merry-go-round. As he did, he saw a guy that’d he’d gone to school with. Right now he was obviously working, he sort of looked like Trevor did attire wise. Usually that is, at the moment he was wearing what appeared to be a medieval peasant turning the thing manually. He’d run into Ashley earlier and noticed she was dressed-up as well. Something like a hand maiden to a princess or something, it was pretty tasteful and concise. He was full, he’d eaten a couple dozen minutes earlier. Having his fill, he went back to the bus and listened to music as he waited for it to fill up. Falling asleep on the ride back, he almost forgot school was over with. Getting off the bus, while everyone was pouring out he gave David a call. No response. He wasn’t sure what to do, there were no more buses because school was already far over with. Weary from the fair and coming down from a momentous high, he could see no options and would have to walk. He stood there flipping through his phone like a drug dealer who didn’t know any druggies for a lackluster amount of time; bad timing. He didn’t like that he had to call anyone to get home. Everyone left the school by now and the sky had started to fade. But, now the air was hot. Not like earlier, like as if a sauna had stretched across his proximity. No, like a bed of fire forged beneath his feet and was conducing the air via the street. Reading the situation right, he’d know something were wrong. But, apprehensive, he didn’t know whether to take off or step back to a better vantage point. “What might happen?”
Nothing stirred. But the searing hot air remained. If he was going to defend himself he didn’t know what to lead with. Not much to go off-of. Since he wasn’t sure what he was actually experiencing. First instinct being to run to the road from one of the three directions, however, he could be cut-off in any circumstance. Regardless, there was nothing else to do but take action. Shifting slowly behind a pair of bushes, Trevor kept his eyes peeled for any inkling of another in the surroundings, that is. Containing the woodshop and football locker-room. He could still feel overwhelming dry heat in the entirety of the area, he crept out of the bushes and sprinted to the middle of the road. Eyeing the right side parallel, he swooped down the road to the forefront of the football complex. He loosened back-up and turned around. The superheating of his environment had stopped. He saw something between the island below the parking lot morph into a sole-form of flame. The flame-being recollected itself into a human-like form and embedded itself into the thing that was total fire and definite features. Blackened eye sockets and free-functioning calves and hands. They swayed violently as it opened its stride to the side of the street and for Trevor. Trevor, frozen with astonishment and fear, backed up within seconds of feeling the peril of the trees lighting from the glow of the figure before him. He stepped aside to regain his bearings, and looked back at the fire man. Pacing steadily toward him, he took his hands and placed them on his own chest, giving himself an absonant amount of energy from the bellows of his power’s source. Come to think of it, he didn’t really know what that was. He’d coined it his energy, but nothing he knew of life added to the things he’d now attained. Looking down at his feet, he knew the energy was building. Considering he wasn’t hurt. Only dilapidated, he knew he was ready to run. Nothing would stop him from avoiding this battle. He had no idea how to subdue or beat a being made of fire. Feeling the power boiling, he made a break for it. Running at the pace of an Olympic runner down the street he knew to get to the major stretch home. Hoping the formation that appeared could not follow. He kept on for miles reaching his street forty minutes later.

           

He could never have fathomed going anywhere at this speed. Holding on to his sweaty shirt and jeans when approaching his front yard; Homing in on the door, and walking in, creeping down the hall to his room with something like ninja silence, nothing to worry about he presumed. But, checking to make sure his assumptions were right, holding his pants after taking his shirt off and tightening his belt around his waist. Still glistening with sweat, opening his drawer and putting his wallet and phone inside. Feeling drained. Still up and aware, but holding himself together forcibly, his arms trussed as he sat on his bed, waiting for some kind of discharge on the effects of his personal boost. To quell his trepidation, he sat there lost in thought for about ten minutes. He felt like time had slowed, but he was still staring at his knees resting his bones. Then got up and discretely walked down the hall and went to get water. Filling up a glass and taking a drink. Stalling at the edge of the window, as he saw a blazing inferno of a man walking down the road. Lit up like Christmas tree on the longest night of winter. Trevor was incomprehensible. He was hoping he’d escaped this nightmare. But, it seemed the outline of a vicious burning man out the window tramping down the street kept his vision in a blur. The narrow view began to hold permanently with damp colors all over. The view ahead was black and white. Even his focus was fixated in time, almost pixelated where a brightness resembled that of a closed furnace. But, his thoughts were racing. He tried to move his eyes. They did indeed move. Everything was like this. The borders of his field of view were distracting, yet remained pertinent. Actualizing where his eyes would end if he were to dart them somewhere else. Also, attempting to get them around more slowly, he couldn’t get by without being seen. Hot head hadn’t moved an inch. Not by a long-shot. No, he’d onset this skill for the instant. Being able to stop time was a part of his power he guessed. Life, death, and time. Trevor had finally realized. Instead of putting precedence on observing his pursuer, he tried to tear off time-stop. It wasn’t working. He felt hectic inside his own mind, feeling trapped and not able to unstick time, he felt the signal in his brain that made his blood start rushing. Unexpectedly falling back into normal time; pressing violently against the counter as he dropped the cup. Water splashed, and he ducked out of sight. He waited frightfully and balanced his torso. One hand on the counter and the other hanging loosely; it hadn’t broken. He kind of dropped it from the portion of his reach that allowed it to gravitate, though it skid some ways. Leaving a trail, like sand that had been swiped away on the beachfront and filled with water. He rose cautiously, keeping out of the window’s frame in front of him. He pressed his eyes to the other window in the kitchen. No sign of anything abnormal. He kept his creeping movements as he walked out toward the front window. The coast was clear. A feeling of relief as he picked up the cup, put it away, dried the water and abscessed from the kitchen.  Over-all, he felt the fiery creature he’d encountered twice in one evening was a bad omen. Now very late, so dark in fact, the inside of his house and area of residence was completely out. He took an extra peek out the window as he wanted to feel like he knew that he was in the clear for the time being. A cumbersome thing to grasp. Both the fact, there was another abomination or the likes out for his blood. At least that’s what it seemed. There wasn’t much to do besides prepare. That was disheartening of itself, it wasn’t that it merely terrified him, but the events to come didn’t help either. Never knowing when to relax and when to keep sharp and contentiously aware was not something he wanted to preoccupy himself with.