The Oneiro Rangers: First Night (6 page)

“... But?”

Clint folded his lips in. “I don’t know.” Stepping back, he dug a
hand into his coat pocket, pacing back and forth. “I don’t know. It’s like
something’s stopping me, telling me it’s wrong. I know it’s not bad... but it
doesn’t feel good. It hurts here.” He poked his chest, a little to the left. “
Right
here and boy does it pack a wallop.”

Rhonda looked down at her body, crossing her arms tightly, almost
curling herself into a ball. “It’s because of
her
... isn’t it?”

Clint didn’t answer, but him shifting his intense gaze said it
all.

Rhonda sighed, like her spirit left her. “You can’t keep treating
her like she’s still alive, Clint. It’s not right — it’s not healthy! Look at
what she’s doing to you, even when she’s not around. You can’t even spend one
night with someone else. You can’t even enjoy yourself, ya big lug. She’s gone.
Can’t you see that? Give up and move on already.”

“She
is
alive,” Clint stated strongly.

Rhonda got up and now it was her turn to hold him down by the
arms. “Okay, okay, calm down. She’s alive. But... this is just complicated.
That’s what it is, it’s complicated. I’ve never had to deal with something like
this. I mean, I don’t care if you want to be with her... but you can’t have us
both at the same time. I’m not going to share you.”

“I know,” he whispered. “Like you said, it’s complicated. I’m just
too dumb to know when I got a good thing right here in front of me.”

It got a smile out of Rhonda, which meant something after that
frown from before. “Don’t worry. I’m not any smarter.”

Light swelled from the windows, the daylight rising out of its
long slumber. The cold air of the drafty classroom wafted away as the sun
warmed up everything within its pleasant reach. Rhonda and Clint carried each
other to the left edge of the desk, sitting down to enjoy the view of the much
needed sunrise. Quiet time was also welcomed, neither one saying a thing after
having said so much. As they locked eyes, they locked lips — kissing for the
very first time.

Rhonda would’ve fallen down if she wasn’t already sitting. “Wow...
you’re not the type to kiss before even buying me dinner first.”

“10 o’clock then,” Clint gave her a quick peck on the lips before
he turned to head into the hall. “And this time it’s for sure.”

“Clint?”

He was at the doorway, holding onto the frame as he leaned inside.
“Yes?”

“Are you going to give up and move on?” Her eyes were already
welling up before the answer was said.

Clint knocked on the wood after thinking for a moment that was
longer than needed. “10 o’clock, on the dot. Expect me to pick you up by then.”

Even if she could get him before he hurried off, it still wouldn’t
do any good. Whatever she could say wouldn’t work and that kiss took up all she
had in her head.

Chapter 7

With the first school day over and done with, everyone was sent to
bed at nine after enjoying their four precious hours of daylight. During the
day, time flew like there was no tomorrow; but when it’s night, things tend to
slow to a grueling crawl. Roland laid there in bed, eyes trained on the
ceiling. A little bit of moonlight pushed through the window curtains, leaving
a line that split the bedroom right down the middle. Other than the twenty or
so teenage boys snoring away, the bedroom was completely quiet.

But something unsettled him...

Usually, he sleeps like a log, but tonight was a different story.
Sleep seemed as unreachable as the brilliant stars outside. While he turned to
find his place, a light tapping noise traveled through the floor boards — felt
instead of heard. Everyone else was fast asleep, and yet the sense of being
watched refused to leave his mind, giving his fingertips a strange chill. He
could swear something was there in the dark.

A faint shadow bobbed about from behind the wooden bed frame, long
and low to the ground. What sounded like something being dragged got farther
and farther away as the shadow moved past the other beds beside Roland’s. He
didn’t move; any shift in weight would make the bedsprings squeak. Following
the shadow with his eyes, he didn’t even blink as the shadow changed direction
and headed towards him. Without thinking, Roland reached out for his lamp’s
beaded cord and tugged it on.

There was nothing.

He searched all over where the shadow once was, but everyone was
under their covers, fast asleep. He let out a sigh of relief, reaching back to
turn off the lamp. When he turned his head to find the cord, he saw the bed
across from him was empty. Not even the covers were there, just a white
mattress with a caseless pillow. He sat up to see the window at the end of the
room was opened, a blanket hanging over its frame.

“Errol…”

Slipping out of bed, he tiptoed to not disturb the others. If
anyone caught him out of bed–other than to use the restroom–then the room’s
overseer would be called over right away and notice Errol’s empty bed. Already
being at the far end of the room, Roland saw that Errol’s bed leg had a blanket
tied around it in a well-made knot. With the rest of the blanket leading to the
window, the sight of it said it all. Peeking under the heavy curtain, he looked
down to see other blankets knotted up in a long chain, all the way down to the
bottom from three stories high.

In just the few seconds he had his head outside, the cold wind was
already enough to make his teeth chatter. He would need more than the flimsy
striped pajamas he had on. Putting on the wrinkled school jacket and slacks that
he had tucked away under his bed–instead of in the closet like he was supposed
to–he gently slipped on his bluchers and returned to the window, all while
making as little sound as possible. Back at the windowsill, he swung his legs
over it and sat there, feet dangling. If the long look down wasn’t enough to
make him worry, the arrow-headed metal fence that enclosed the academy surely
helped in doing so.

Roland shook his head, blowing out air in frustration. Hanging
onto the twisted-up blanket firmly, he started to climb down, hand-under-hand.
He made slow careful grabs, using his feet on the knots to take some weight off
his hands. Doing the ropes was one of the activities in physical education he
started to regret skipping. As he steadily passed the second story of the
building, a loud noise came from inside and turned his world into a blur.

The bed’s leg gave out, breaking off with a worn-down
snap
.
The long trail of blankets slacked instantly, plummeting towards the grass,
slither through the air. Roland slammed into the soft grass on his back, the
short fall knocking the air out of him. Like an arrow from the sky, the wooden
leg flew straight down at him, jagged end first. He rolled out of the way,
barely seeing it in time; having the leg dig into the dirt instead of his face.

Getting up and brushing the dead weeds off of his arms and legs,
he saw the one who got him into this situation in the first place. Errol stood
before the man-made arch of dried branches that looped around the only exit out
of there — like a wreath welcoming him to the depths of the Withering Woods.
The dirt path had nothing to illuminate it beyond the overhanging light that
was over the entrance, moths dancing under its limited glow. Errol turned on
his flashlight to see where he would be going, making his way forward and not a
chance of looking back. He stopped in mid-stride when a hand planted onto his
shoulder.

“Where are you going, kid?” Roland said in a deep voice, trying to
intimidate an adult.

It didn’t fool Errol one bit. “Don't try to stop me Roland.” He
shrugged off his friend’s hand, turning around to face him as he did. "I'm
not going to stay here anymore. Not one second longer.”

“What’s the matter? Brain too tiny for all that learning going
around?”

“This is no time for jokes. Didn't you hear them earlier? People
have gone insane from this line of work. They weren't weak. They weren't crazy
before. Those Nightmares destroyed their minds. I don't know about you, but I
ain't having any part of that.” He turned away, continuing his journey into the
woods.

“And where will you go, huh? You can't get another job out there.
No one in the city will take in a runaway. When you were ten, you chose to be
an Oneiro Ranger and now you have to be one.
You
took the test,
you
made the decision, and now
you
have to carry it out — just like the rest
of us.”

Errol’s left fist was clenched tight, but he resisted the
overwhelming urge to knock Roland’s block off. “I’m going to do what all of the
other runaways do. I'm going to live in Down Town, find a living there, do what
I
want to do. It'll be a lot better than becoming those lunatics we saw.
You saw them — cooped up like animals with nowhere to go, no mind of their own.
Just being a wandering waste of life.” He lifted the flashlight up to the path,
making his exit out of there. “If you know what’s good for ya, you’ll follow my
lead.”

All Roland could do was hang his head low in deep thought. “Why do
his stupid points always make sense?” Smacking his forehead for what he was
about to do, he then sprinted after Errol, hoping he wasn’t too far gone. “Wait
up, I'm going with you!”

.  .  .

“Do you see him?” Malory whispered.

Angelica and Malory had their heads peeked into the boy's dorm,
the door cracked open by a tad. They made sure to avoid the door's squeak in
fear of waking up any light sleeper, something that was sure to happen. Malory
held the bucket of water firmly in her arms, keeping it between her chest and
Angelica's back. The hallway they stood in was awfully drafty, mostly from the
empty space that was usually filled with student bodies. None of the lights
were on in the halls, making their walk take longer than expected; Malory
ending up on the fifth floor instead of the third one before Angelica had found
her.

“The two beds in the back are empty,” Angelica answered, pointing
a finger at them. “Over there, the ones on the left. They must be somewhere
else.” She stood away from the door, sighing with deep disappointment.

“Don’t tell me it’s the wrong room.”

Squishing her mouth to the side with a hum, Angelica looked back
into the room to see the taut blanket wiggling over the window. “Ah ha! This is
there room all right. And they’re sneaking out as we speak.”

Malory ticked her head to the side, knocking her glasses out of
place. “That’s just silly. There’s nothing to do at this hour.”

Angelica scoffed, putting a hand on her hip. “Errol’s a weirdo.
You expect anything he does to make sense?”

Suddenly, the bed’s leg gave out with a loud crack. Malory made a
startled yelp, Angelica quickly covered her mouth to cut it off short. The
noisy clatter of the bed falling under its own weight woke everyone up in the
room. All the lights turned on in the boy’s dorm, the students making a clamor
of questioning. Once the empty beds were noticed, the attention changed over to
them.

The two girls were about to run away, but Angelica pushed Malory
back. “No, no. Quick, get rid of the bucket!”

Malory franticly searched in the dark for a place to hide the
bucket, seeing nothing nearby to conceal it with. Thinking for the next best
thing, she reached up and hid it on top of the door — using the opening to
support it against the wall. She raced to reach Angelica, flailing her arms
wildly and almost tripping. The stumble caused her to lose her shoe, Malory
hurrying back to retrieve it. Once she caught up to Angelica, the two of them
stomped their way into the dark stairway, hoping to find their brothers before
someone else did.

The faculty member in charge of the dorm room burst out of his
separate quarters, settling down the awakened students. “Calm down, everyone,”
Clint ordered, “calm down. I’ll get to the bottom of this — just give me a
minute.”

“Somebody climbed down through the window,” one of them shouted,
pointing the morpheus in the right direction.

“Okay, okay. Let me just see for myself.” He saw the fallen bed on
his way to the window. A pile of knotted blankets laid on the grass down below,
all coiled up loosely. He huffed, pushing away from the sill. His eyes darted
about, mentally counting how many students were in there with him.

“Where’s Roland and Errol?” He demanded. He saw that a third face
was absent. “And Sova?”

No answer, only drowsy faces staring back at him, some of them
still rubbing the sleep out of their eyes. Clint slammed the window closed,
grumbling as he did.

“Great...” He stormed into his room to get his trench coat and a
flashlight, “... only the first day and we already got trouble makers here.” He
was at the door when he turned back. “If anyone else is gone missing, I’ll
write you up for three days in The Hole!”

He swung the door open, the bucket full of water dropping over his
head. The teenagers all laughed in an uproar, watching the water cover him from
head to toe. Clint tried to pull it off, the swinging handle getting stuck
under his chin. Struggling to take it off for a bit, he hurled it to the floor,
spitting out water. He clenched his teeth.

“I’ll get those kids yet!”