No… No… No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!!!!
I scream in my head as I slam the door.
Storming upstairs to my room & slamming the door behind
me.
I ball up in the
corner.
Everything is disappearing…
It was pointless to even close the door on such sorcery.
The door is disappearing.
EVERYTHING is disappearing…
Except for that one thing in the corner of my room…
My desk.
The
Odyssey of Dante- Tales of Rafael:
White
Light/Brown Desk
By:
Dante Comstock
-7 DAYS
AGO-
Thursday,
November 10th, I was assigned by my English teacher, Mrs. Crabsmon to write an
essay about what the most important thing is to me.
“Since
finals are around the corner, you have to turn it in next Friday. Consider
yourselves lucky… Especially you Rafael.” Mrs. Crabsmon gives me the stink eye.
She practically thinks of me in my terms as, “That crappy student of mine who
moves his mouth more than his pen.” We built that kind of link together. It’s
gotten to the point where she & I would get into a battle of logic &
jokes VS power. Everyone in school has called it the “Crab Wars.” It’s their
free entertainment program that’s live in their classroom almost every day. My
brother would be the party foul if he was in the same class, though I guess
he’d have his own program name with me. Regardless, another episode of Crabs
Wars had begun when she added that comment towards me.
“Lucky huh? Maybe I
should be going to Vegas then if you say that Mrs. Crabs,” I chuckled.
“That’s Mrs.
Crabsmon for the 64th time Rafael! And you’re not old enough to even gamble!”
she exhorted for the 64th time.
“I’m surprised you
kept count.”
“That was just an
estimate!”
“That’s an unsafe
estimate… You’re five numbers away from a censored reference…,” the class
laughed as usual.
The bell rang on
that note & everyone left the class with smiles on their faces. Ah… I
should get paid for this…
As I’m walking out I
run into Saya Fukushumichi. That charm’n light purple’d hair cutie! If only she
wasn’t so tomboy-ish… Oh well. I shall be the one to open her true feminine
side!
“Good afternoon
Saya-chan!” I greeted with a smile.
“Shut up chicken
hair,” she shoots at me, “Your world polluting toxic breath is hitting me.”
“Cruel with words as
usual…,” I replied with my head down in slight agony, “You know if someone
asked what your most deadly weapon was… I’d say it’s your words.”
“Hmph,” she looks
away from me with that. Truly, she loathes me more than Mrs. Crabs. And that
alone says something.
“Rafael,” a familiar
female voice calls, “You need to act like an upperclassmen now. The
underclassmen are supposed to be looking up to us ya know?” I turn around to
see the lovely Alice Summers. That blonde bombshell of beauty…
“ALICE!” I scream in joy as I run up to her
& give a tight hug, “OH… THIS WORLD IS CRUEL! SAVE ME FROM FINALS &
SAYA WITH YOUR EVER CARRING GRACE!”
“Ahaha…” she
giggles, “I don’t think Freya works like that…”
“And that’s enough
laying your hands on Alice Rafael,” spoke the voice of the boy pushing me away
from Alice. The
voice I know well. The voice that Alice’s
delicate heart belongs to. The voice that belong to the brother of mine who is
the contrast character in the story who I know as… Dante.
“Geez… The day when
I will hold a girl like that ever again… Damn it Dante…” I mutter to myself.
“I heard about Mrs.
Crabs,” he bluntly told me.
“Ah…” I nervously
chuckled, “Is that so…?”
“You’re hitting the
Danger Zone man. You’re gonna blow this assignment till the Final Countdown
aren’t ya Bro?” His cheap 80’s references ate me up like a Maneater.
“Don’t worry about
it Bro, I’ll Push it to the Limit.” I respond back with my own reference.
“You’ll reach the
top but still you gotta learn how to keep it,” oh yeah… He went there.
“A-anyways you two…”
Alice says
butting in our 80s battle, “Dax gave me some chocolate to share with everyone!”
That stopped my battle in an instant. Dante raised an eyebrow for some reason.
“Here you go Dante,
Saya, & you too Rafael!” She gives me chocolate with a delicate smile on
her face. She may not be mine BUT SHE’S STILL HEAVEN’S ANGEL THAT IS RIGHT IN
FRONT OF ME!!! HALLELUJAH!
I take a bite into
my chocolate bar & it tasted a little bit funny. Maybe it's dark chocolate…
Though after taking a few more bites the funny taste no longer tingled in my
tongue.
“This is great!” I
exclaimed, “What’s this made out of?”
“FOKUSFLAVOR,” Dante
said while eating his chocolate.
“What?”
“Nothing.” He
finished his chocolate as he said that. I got the idea he intended to say that
with his mouth full to fool me. I wonder what he said though.
“Anyway Rafael,”
Dante continued, “You should focus at sitting at your desk & working on
your essay. Don’t fool around just because you have a week till it’s due.”
“PSHAW!” I rolled my
eyes & gave him the SASS hand, “I’ll get it done when I feel it in me.” Oh
how those words are famous. Those same words were going to slowly bite me in
the upcoming days.
-4 DAYS
LEFT-
Monday,
November 14th. I’ve had a fun weekend while Dante & the others were
studying. Talk about boring.
Finals began &
the never ending sea of tests drowned me in. When lunch finally came to my
rescue, I rolled off my desk & continued rolling out of my classroom till I
hit Dante.
“I know that’s how
you roll…” Dante said while looking down at me, “But you should really avoid
getting into a ball; you might end up as a pinball getting shot down the hall.”
“Sounds awesome!
I’ve always wanted to be a Space Cadet!” I answered honestly.
“The theme of it is
Strawberry Shortcake,” he retorted.
“SPARE ME BRO!” I
shouted as I sprang back into “standing mode.” We laughed it off a bit &
started walking home. I was thinking of quickly checking out the library to see
if they had my favorite gaming magazines when suddenly.
“Wha…?” I stopped
& stared at it dumbfounded. There was a white wall in front of the library
entrance.
“Rafae-” Dante
started smirked when he looked at me, “PFFFhaha… Rafael, what are you doing?”
My major surprise was the fact my brother was laughing at me as if I look more
stupid than the white wall. Well actually, I’m more surprised on how he’s
acting as if the wall isn’t an abnormality. In that case I think asking him
would be pointless. Besides… He’s too busy laughing at my priceless dumbfounded
face.
Later down the
street to our house Dante asked, “Rafael, what’s the progress regarding your
homework?”
“I haven’t started
it yet,” I straight on told him.
“What you tend to
resist tends to persist Rafael,” he told me.
“Well thanks
Grandpa, I’ll try really hard to work on writing my essay tonight.”
Easier said than
done. The truth is… I can’t come up with anything to write on such a topic.
“What’s the most important thing to you?” Come on seriously? I have had so many
things that I like. With that being said, I can’t necessarily play favorites.
Dante would be struggling with this topic too. I bet you on it. So the
following night, I just did fancy tricks with my pen rather than work it on
paper.
-2 DAYS
LEFT-
The white
walls have been increasing lately. It’s appearing in most of my favorite
pastime places. I’ve been running out of options to go relax afterschool. It’s
rather… Frightening. I asked Dante if he could see the walls & all he told
me was…
“Ha. It’s like a
message from above telling you to do your homework.” He also told me, “By the
way Rafael, how’d you do on your English Final? I think I passed with flying
rainbows.” And he also said, “Dude your hair is losing its chicken spike man.
You need to shape yourself up.” And lastly he said, “Rafael, I don’t see the
white walls you’re talking about. I managed to get the magazine for ya. But
I’ll give it to you after you finish your homework.”
“PEEEHHHH!!!” I
yelled at him. But certainly he raised a point earlier. Those walls… Could they
really be a message from above telling me to do my homework? It’s rather
concerning how no one else can see them but me. I would do my homework if I
could figure something to write on the damn topic. I went straight home today
with Dante & went to bed early hoping some sleep could cure this possible
mirage I’m seeing….
Nope.
-1 DAY
LEFT-
Thursday, November 17th.
Today I woke up from bed.
I went to school early for once.
The only problem is…
The white walls have dramatically increased.
They’re everywhere.
They literally walled me from going anywhere else but
school.
Even then, the hallways were full of the walls.
They lead only to my relevant classes.
They covered the windows outside.
They were literally controlling my path.
Then the final bell rang.
Leaving my bleached classroom,
I see Dax & Dante standing together looking at me.
“There he is,” said
Dax.
“Rafael,” Dante
called.
“What?!” I yelled,
“What do you want?!”
“He’s getting
worse,” Dante told Dax, “Shouldn’t we…?”
“No,” Dax
interrupted, “At this point it’s now or never for him.”
“What are you two
talking about?!” I shouted at them. I was losing my cool at this point. I’ve
been deprived of my hobbies. I was getting a hobby deprivation. And that alone
was breaking my mentality.
“Rafael,” Dante
called to me, “You can’t keep resisting your homework. You have to do it.”
“Shut up Dante!” I
snapped, “You can’t tell me to work on an essay that I have no idea on what to
write about!”
“So do you want to
drown in those white walls then?” Dax asked.
“Wha-wh-what did you
say…?”
“You’re under stress
because of those white walls everywhere right?” Dax guessed.
“Do you know
something about these damn walls?!”
“Of course I do.” My
eyes widened.
“Because I was the
one that made your special focus flavored chocolate.”
A twig in my brain
broke. It all made sense. The reason why Dante raised an eyebrow when Alice said Dax made
chocolate. The reason why only I can see the walls. The reason why the walls
increased the closer we got to Friday. The only reason why these walls restrict
me from doing anything else besides school related stuff. Was because of Dax’s
special chocolate he made for me. Everyone had normal chocolate from somewhere
else. Dax made mine with a special chemical that responded to the words Dante
said shortly after I ate the chocolate.
“You
should focus on sitting at your desk & working on your essay. Don’t fool
around just because you have a week till it’s due.”
“What
you tend to resist tends to persist Rafael.”
He knew this whole
time. Dax & Dante devised a plan which they think would result in me doing
my homework. Hahaha… This… Is almost… Funny…
“So Rafael,” Dante
began, “I’m going to sit with you through your homework.”
“DON’T SCREW WITH
ME! YOU CAN’T FORCE THIS ON ME!!”
I ran…
I ran faster than I had ever run from school before…
There was no time for me to simply just walk…
Not only Dante would be after me…
But those walls followed me as well…
No, they weren’t even walls anymore…
They became a white fluid that covered the world around me
in white.
No… No…
No. No. No. No. No. No. No. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!
NO! NO!!!!
I scream in my head as I slam the door.
Storming upstairs to my room & slamming the door behind
me.
I ball up in the corner.
Everything is disappearing…
It was pointless to even close the door on such sorcery.
The door is disappearing.
EVERYTHING is disappearing…
Except for that one thing in the corner of my room…
My desk.
“What’s
the most important thing to you?”
“A not so simple question.
Especially to someone who doesn’t play favorites.
I love chocolate, guitar jammin’, babes, & living in
general.
I have tons of favorite personal possessions as well.
I just can’t begin to tell you how general this question is.
Something so general that requires a deep answer.
Mrs. Crabs must be kidding me.
I can’t write about just one item.”
“Then
write about the ones you can write a lot about.”
I suddenly hear a
voice in the white room of mine. And to my shock, it’s Dante. I then realized
that I spoke my thoughts out loud. I forgot… He isn’t affected by the walls.
And even more so, he, the one who with his words alone changed my week, was
able to work his way in his own set up illusion for me.
“What are you saying
Bro?” I asked, shaking.
“I’m saying you can
write your starting paragraph stating the top three important items to you
& in the following three paragraphs, you can write about each item. I don’t
even need to mention the concluding paragraph.” Like that, he just gave me the
simple solution that I could’ve thought if I wasn’t so busy trying to avoid
doing the work. From there, he pulled me up from the corner & said, “Let’s
Rock’n…”
“And don’t come a
knock’n!” I finished for him as I Bro-fisted him.
That night, I finished the essay in a few minutes.
-DUE
DATE-
I strut my
way into class with a huge smirk on my face. Mrs. Crabs looks at me with a
confused look with a mixture of disgust at my joyous look.
“Mrs. Crabs…”
“Mrs. Crabsmon!”
“… I present to you
my lovely essay of my important things.” I slam my essay on her desk. The rich
white paper of mine that probably shot off a thousand evil spirits from her
desk. Mrs. Crabs, looking awfully shocked grabbed my paper & checked the
contents. From there she screamed…
“WHAT IS THIS-” the
following things coming from her mouth were things that everyone would laugh
their lungs out & keep secret from the administrators because that was the
most entertaining episode of Crab Wars they’ve ever seen in their time in this
class.
Ah yes… It
was a sweet victory. That could’ve been less stressful to achieve… If I didn’t
procrastinate & resist.
THE END
