Graduation, 1997

“It moved backwards…” Jessie muttered.

“What?” Andy answered.

“The second hand on the clock just moved backwards,” Jessie raised his voice so Andy can hear through the noisy classroom.

Andy looked at the clock, the second hand of the clock was still continuing the endless journey making the mesmerizing sound of tick-tok as it moved clockwise.

“Don’t be ridiculous, want to play some cards with us?” Andy asked.

“No, I am good,” Jessie dismissed the idea that the clock just moved backwards.

Jessie looked out the window, distracted by the weird formation of the clouds. Whoever in the education ministry thought it was a good idea to make gr.12s go to school after university acceptance should be sent back to school. This was one of the many unproductive grade twelve classes, the teacher was in the back on the laptop not giving a damn. The students were either playing cards or on their phones.

         In the seats behind Jessie, some girls were talking about a ghost that haunted the school. In a big high school like Churchill Secondary, there were always rumors of unspeakable demons that haunted the school. Jessie dismissed the idea that the school was haunted. It was just as ridiculous as the clock moving back five seconds. Even though, he was sure the clock went back five seconds.

         The rest of the school day involved the study of different cloud formation and the “exciting” card games. The only thing keeping Jessie from skipping was the film club meeting afterschool. Thirty minutes afterschool, most students had left the building to enjoy the rest of the day, Jessie walked through the empty hallway with occasional woodwind sounds that echoed through the hallway from some afterschool band rehearsal. A young man was staring at one of the graduation pictures that was framed along the hallway. He was tall and slender around Jessie’s age but Jessie had a feeling he wasn’t one of Churchill’s students. The tall man looked at Jessie and smiled, Jessie smiled back. The tall man was wearing large square glasses, his appearance was out of sync with the fashion of today.

         “Can I help you?” Jessie sensed the lingering sensation in his eyes.

         The tall man just smiled and simply shook his head. As Jessie walked away, the tall man suddenly tapped his shoulder and handed him a notebook. Jessie stunned by this unexpected action flipped through the notebook, there were a lot of writings in it, it seemed to be a diary of some sort.

“What is the meaning of this?” Jessie said but the tall slender man was focused on the graduation picture once again, unwilling to answer.

         The sunset had already covered the hallway when Jessie finished his film club meeting. A different man stood in front of the same graduation picture, an older gentleman with long robe and a walking crane.

         Jessie approached the older gentleman; he looked at this graduation picture, it was from the year 1997 but there was nothing particularly interesting or special about this graduation picture.

         “Funny, just a while ago another man was looking at the same graduation picture,” Jessie opened a conversation with the older gentleman who had been intrigued by the graduation picture.

         The older gentleman turned around and looked at Jessie, Jessie noticed a long scar that stretched from the top of his eyes to the bottom.

         “What was he doing?” the older gentleman asked.

         “He was staring at the graduation picture just like you” Jessie said.

         “Did you talk to him?” the older gentleman pressed on.

         “Yes, he gave me a notebook,” Jessie took a step back, alarmed at the older gentleman’s reaction.

         The older gentleman looked around, as if searching for something. The next thing Jessie remembered was sprawling on the ground, flat on his stomach. The older gentleman, contrary to his appearance landed a blow with his crane swiftly to Jessie’s head. Jessie saw a thin trickle of blood pooled in front of him as he lost consciousness.

*

         “So… you woke up…” the older gentleman said.

         He was in somewhere dark, lying on a concrete floor. The place smelled familiar. Jessie tried to get up from the floor but the throbbing pain from his head stopped him.

“Who the f**k are you?” Jessie fully aware of his situation remembered the older gentleman in front of him assaulted him moments ago.

He tried to reach for his phone, it was gone so was his wallet. Jessie retreated backwards from the older gentleman until he was against a wall. He tried to flee from the dark room but he was stopped by a blow of the crane to his stomach which sent him back to the ground again.

“Why are you doing this to me? What do you want from me?” Jessie said.

“Sorry, it is really nothing personal, really, it is just my job?” the older gentleman said.

“What are you? A hit man? Why would anyone want to assassinate a perfectly normal high school student like him.

“If I was, you wouldn’t be still alive,” the older gentleman said.

“Then what do you want from me?” Jessie said.

“You,” the older gentleman pointed at Jessie “ do not belong to this world anymore.”

“What are you talking about, you psycho,” Jessie yelled.

Suddenly, the older gentleman reached out and grabbed him on the shoulder, the older gentleman’s grip was surprisingly firm.

“Shhh, he is coming,” the older gentleman said.

The older gentleman led Jessie out of the dark room into a hallway. Jessie knew it was the school from the dimly lit hallway, they were inside a janitor closet at a lesser known part of the school but it was the school.

“You see young man, you do not belong to this world the moment you read and received the notebook from the tall slender man in front of the graduation picture today,” the older gentleman said, still keeping a firm grip on Jessie’s shoulder.

They marched down the hallway slowly but the older gentleman guided with certainty.

“There are many universe and realms, the one we are at right now is just one of them, I’m sure you heard of the theory of the parallel universe,” the older gentleman did not wait for an answer “ once in a while, something goes wrong, a mix up in the unbreakable system of nature, a mistake. Then someone or something that is not supposed to be in this world appears, destroying the whole system.”

Jessie wanted to run from this crazy nonsense, but the older gentleman’s grip was like iron.

“ That’s how you get half of those legends, folklores whatever, most of the time it is just a screw up bringing something that does not belong in this universe from another universe, and humans tend to make an explanation to comfort themselves, ” the older gentleman said “ the man you talked to and interacted earlier did not belong to this universe.”

“Let’s pretend all the non-sense you just said is true, who the hell are you?” Jessie said.

“I am…, I guess, a keeper of the time and universes, to make sure the system does not breakdown,” the older gentleman said.

“hmph… so, so what are you saying is that you are a god?” Jessie scoffed.

“Wait here,” the older gentleman suddenly threw Jessie on the ground.

The older gentleman tapped the ground with his crane three times, a blue emblem with weird figures appeared on the ground for a moment then disappeared.

“Are you ready to go?” the older gentleman said to someone in the darkness.

The tall slender man Jessie met earlier this afternoon appeared as if out of thin air with the same exact smile as before.

“You know you do not belong here,” the older gentleman said “ you forcefully intruded this universe.”

“ Hey, Hey, at least I am originally from this place,” the tall slender man said “ Anyways, I have already finished my mission, you can take me wherever you want.”

Jessie grasped the opportunity that the older gentleman was distracted by conversation, he got up slowly and ran for his life. He was met by something similar to a concrete wall while running at full speed, except it was invisible.

“What is this s**t,” Jessie muttered as he wiped his bleeding nose.

He ran his hand both ways; it seemed this area was sealed off by an invisible barrier.

“You finished your mission?” the older gentleman said mockingly.

“Yes, justice will be carried out sooner or later as long as I leave the spark in this world,” the tall slender man said.

“I’m sorry to inform you that I will have to distinguish the spark you left in this world,” the older gentleman reached for Jessie’s shoulder and pulled him forcefully towards the centre of this confrontation.

“You..? How did you get him?”  the tall slender man said.

“It is my job,” the older gentleman said.

“You… You.. B*****d! Do you know how much I have suffered?” the tall slender man’s face started to twist and deform into a weird blur.

A cloud of darkness surrounded the older gentleman and Jessie but was blocked from the rest of the world by the same invisible barrier. The tall slender man was not in physical form anymore, a more ghastly cloud of darkness replaced his physical body. Jessie screamed, the older gentleman remained calm.

“This is just the perfect proof that you do not belong here anymore,” the older gentleman said while raising his crane slightly above the ground. He tapped the ground with his crane and a blue emblem appeared once again.

The next time Jessie regained consciousness he was surrounded by complete whiteness, with nothing other than the endless whiteness. Without surprise the older gentleman appeared in front of Jessie from the whiteness.

“This is the end of your journey,” the older gentleman said with a softer voice.

Jessie did not scream or yell out in anger, too much had happen in such a short time frame, he needed time to process all the information.

“Why?” Jessie said.

“That is just how the system works,” the older gentleman said “ I did not make the system.”

“What is going to happen to me now?” Jessie asked.

“You will be here,” the older gentleman said “ in between the universes, a place surrounded by nothingness, a place unaffected by time until the end of time.”

“ I do not deserve this,”  Jessie protested “ I am just a student going through my regular day, why would this happen to me?”

“The world is an unfair place,” the older gentleman paused “ let me tell you the story of that tall slender man you met earlier today, I think you have the right to know his story.”

*

“ Eat s**t, Punk!”  a tall slender kid was shoved against a locker inside the change room by a typical jock.

         The Jock and his friends laughed at the tall kid who was scrambling back to his feet.

“Don’t let me see you do that again,” the bully said as he left with his posse.

         The tall slender kid wiped the thin trickle of blood from his nose, he did not deserve this but he was used to being the target by now, after five years, he was used to all the bullying.

“Jesus, are you ok?” the tall kid noticed one of the member from bully’s posse stayed behind.

This kid was one of the better ones inside that bunch, the kid passed the tall slender kid a bunch of tissue.

“You better hurry up, Mr.Gillespie is going to make you run laps if you are late,” the kid said as he left the room.

Just a few more months, the tall slender kid thought as he wiped the blood away, a few more months till graduation and I will be out of this s**t.

At home, the tall slender kid opened his diary and wrote down a single word, Chris. Chris was the bully, the muscle head, the reason for his pain in the past five years.

I can make it, just a few more months the tall slender kid sighed.

He looked at his diary, the whole page was filled with Chris’ name when he regained control of his hand.

… Can I take it?

The prom committee this year was a bunch of slackers, evident from the falling letter “O” in the “Welcome to Churchill’s Prom, Class of 1997” banner. The tall slender kid,however, was more concentrated on something else, he was looking for Chris. He wanted revenge for all the suffering he had to endure for the last five years.

“Are you ok?” A girl noticed his tense expression.

“Yeah,” the tall slender kid loosened his grip of the gun in his suit.

*

“Wait, Wait,” Jessie interrupted the story “ the tall slender kid killed someone? And he is or was from my school?

“He did not, fortunately, but ironically it was Chris the bully who stopped him,” the older gentleman said “ Chris was hailed as a hero by the school and media for preventing a mass student shooting, while the other kid was denounced as a criminal.”

“What happened to the kid?” Jessie asked.

“ He killed himself before his trial,” older gentleman said “ he was at the Death Universe before intruding back to this universe.”

“And I have to suffer also why?” Jessie asked.

“Because you interacted with him, he gave you the notebook that contained information which could convict Chris and therefore change the course of history.”

Jessie nodded slightly.

“Chris is a successful sport player that is raking in millions each year, talk about unfair,”  the older gentleman said.

Jessie stayed quite.

“Well, I need to get going soon, I guess I will see you in the next couple century or whenever,” the older gentleman said as if waiting for Jessie to protest.

“You are fine with that?” the older gentleman asked.

“Do I have a choice?” Jessie said.

The older gentleman pondered Jessie’s question for a bit and nodded affirmatively.

“Your other choice is to become my assistant and I will handle the rest, but that would mean being non-existent, you will be living on the edge of every universes but belonging to none, all your current ties must be severed,” the older gentleman said.

“Being non-existent…?” Jessie repeated “ how is that different from death.”

“That,I will let you decide, after all time is one thing that you have right now,” the older gentleman said as he disappeared into the whiteness.

Jessie was surrounded by infinite whiteness, a place where space and time was non-existent. He felt dead.