The Flamekeepers of Delta Psi Theta - 2. Bad Dream

The humvee rattled as we passed marker tango and made our turn to return to the checkpoint. The squawk box was quiet after we reported in, the static almost melodic. It was a beautiful night—a light breeze to keep things from feeling stifled but not enough to kick up dust. Even the stars were showing off, seemingly extra bright.

We came over the ridge just south of the checkpoint. The plan said we stay here for the next 40 minutes with the roof guns pointed just in front of the checkpoint building. All our internal lights were off. Harder to get our position. But we could see another humvee parked under the checkpoints bright floodlights while its crew took a break inside. We could be there in a little over a minute if we were to gun it giving them cover fire while they scrambled. It was our job to ensure we didn’t have to gun it. We were here to provide enough notice so they could scramble in time to get the barriers up. In 40 minutes, the next patrol would be close enough to take our position so we could use the checkpoint as a relief.

The lack of moonlight was the biggest headache. Harveson kept the thermals tracking outside, but all he was catching were mice darting across the “road.”

A glorified fucking deer trail is what it was. Two trucks couldn’t pass for another ten clicks outta here. Supposedly it made it easier to repair after a truck bomb. I don’t know about that; what I do know is that it made it nearly impossible to keep coffee and enlisted men on the post.

My watch hit 27 minutes. The mix of tension and boredom started to reach a boiling point. Thirteen more to go until we could drive down to the checkpoint and get some sweet, sweet caffeine. The post was out of coffee, but I had some NOS stocked in a few strategic locations, like the locked fridge in the checkpoint break room. I still believe that if we had Monsters and Red Line in 1944, Iwo Jima would have been over in a week.

I was thinking of letting us go loud to hit a few of those rats to burn off the tension when out of the corner of my eye, I watched the thermal image drop out for a second, then come back.

“Uhh, Harveson, what was that?”

“Dunno, sergeant, maybe a glitch.”

“Let’s make damn sure it isn’t a glitch. Becker, get your eyes on and scan the area.”

Becker moved from the driver's seat to reach into his pack and grab his goggles. He had them going in under a minute.

I took the mic for the squawk and held it to my mouth, ready to report the first sign of trouble. I was keeping an eye on the checkpoint. If we were breached, they needed to secure the actual post and whatever they were doing there.

I could see the thermals in my peripheral, and I saw something massive moving toward the checkpoint. I didn’t know what to make of it; something was sucking out all the light and heat from the area, like some infrared shadow.

“Becker, you seeing this?”

“Yeah, sergeant”

He was already in gear and gunned the engine, moving us down to the checkpoint.

“T-1 minute”

I hit the button on my radio “this is patrol Charlie Foxtrot; we have incoming to Checkpoint Delta, I repeat….”

Then we lost thermal completely, and the squawk only gave squelching tones, nothing usable. I don’t know if my message got out. All thermal feeds were gone, just missing pixels and bad refresh rates…

Harveson passed me my rifle. I checked that it was loaded and chambered.

“Becker, you pull up to the building and let me out. Move to a good fire position. Harveson, you keep eyes on me. When I give the signal, you unleash hell on this thing.”

I jumped out of the humvee and into the checkpoint building. All the barriers were already up, so if it was some vehicle, it wasn’t getting through. Where the fuck was everyone?

I looked out the front window and could see it—an expanding shadow. A triangle that sucks up all the light. The tip moved back and forth as if it were slithering like a snake. It got closer and closer. The bright lights of the building flickered off. I was frozen in place. I couldn’t move. The bomb-resistant glass in front of me shattered and…

My eyes shot open and I was screaming. I couldn’t move; I couldn’t do anything. I was locked in place, trying to regain the feeling in my guts. Just as quickly as it started, it ended. The person in the bed next to me didn’t even flinch, just rolling over and beginning to snore again lightly.

The good news was that I was in a bed, as small as it might be—a step up from my car to be sure. As the night terror faded from memory, the pain of the previous night began to set in. My head began to throb as punishment for the sheer quantity of alcohol I seemed to have consumed. While my brain started to protest consciousness, my bladder took advantage to get me up. With all the gracefulness of a baby giraffe, I stood up and walked through the door to a common area with two old couches and a mini fridge. My eyes locked on my target, the bathroom.

I walked to the toilet and went to undo my pants, only to realize I wasn’t wearing any. I was casually walking naked through a frat house and hadn’t even lived here 24 hours. I was really living up to that Novotny name of being trash. I lined my pecker up and unleashed a torrent of old beer and whiskey into the bowl.

“When I said make yourselves at home, this wasn’t exactly the approach I had in mind,” I heard Teo say from the doorway behind me.

“You know, more than three shakes and yer playin’ with it,” he added as I shook the last drops from my relaxed dick and turned around.

He was in only cowboy boots and white briefs, tattoos and muscles punctuating the light mocha skin. He stood there with a shit-starting grin, eating a peach while I stood there in my own naked glory. I hadn’t said a word since I woke up. Under the best circumstances I would be tongue-tied with this vision in front of me. I tried to think of something witty, but all the blood seemed to leave my brain for other destinations.

“A peach? Really?” was all I could come up with.

“I was going to go with an apple, but we were out,” he said with a smile before sinking his teeth in for another bite.

“And let me guess, you like your food with a bit of fuzz?” I said, closing the distance between us. My cock was beginning to get hard enough that my foreskin was rolling back, showing the purple head underneath. I could see he was getting hard in his briefs.

“I do. And while your peach is lookin’ quite tasty right now…” he trailed off as I took the peach out of his hand and took a bite.

“You probably want me to take a shower first. This is panic sweat, not fun sweat.”

I handed him his peach back and went to wash my hands.

“You know I'm still going to eat it even if you got piss on it.” He said, a little deflated.

“Oh, I know; I have a feeling you are like me in that regard,” I said, washing my hands in the gloriously hot water.

The silence started to grow as my headache faded. Our breathing and his occasional bite of the peach were the only sounds in the room after I shut off the faucet. As I dried my hands, I could see he wanted to ask me something but was trying to find the courage or way to phrase it.

“What’s got you up so early, Teo?” I said, trying to break him out of his second-guessing.

“I heard a pledge screaming, so I came down to check. The only one up is you. Need to talk?”

“Just a night terror, it happens.”

“Do you need to talk?” he said again, more forcefully.

“I wouldn’t mind talking, but not about that.”

He motioned for me to follow him out to the couches, so I did.

“So what’s up, Novo”

“I'm confused why y’all picked me to be honest.”

“I'm not sure what you mean.”

“I'm a 29-year-old veteran with one fully working arm. I was living out of my car, for christ's sake. Now here I am in one of the most powerful fraternities in the country like that, based on an interview I don't remember?”

“And partying like a rockstar, yeah. You are a good guy Novo. You care about people. Hell, you met Track what, two days ago, and you bought his clothes for last night? You have a sense for people. You care and are stronger in helping than even you realize. With some direction, that's powerful as fuck.”

I sat there, having been forced to listen to good things about myself and, despite wanting to argue, being unable to do so.

“Plus, even with the bad arm, you ain't bad to look at. We got a reputation to uphold, ya know.”

That gave me a chuckle. I’d been working hard to keep my body in check. Ok, that was a lie; working out made me hate myself less, so I did it. Plus, it helped in case they showed up again.

“How long have you been seeing them, Novo?” He said with a newfound seriousness.

“Seeing what?” I said as if they weren't just on my mind.

“The Umbrian. How long have you been seeing them” he asked again, this time with none of the joking demeanor.

I didn’t know if I wanted to unpack all of this, especially this early in the morning. So I dodged it by asking the question burning in my mind. “Does this have anything to do with holding a glowing blade to your neck?”

He swallowed hard and broke eye contact for just a second. It wasn't a dream. That was all the confirmation I needed.

“I see we have a lot to talk about outside your night terror, but not here. Go grab some shorts; I'll show you the gym. We can talk a little more privately while getting a pump in and burning off this hangover.”

Now this I could get behind. Why can’t therapy happen like this instead of in some sterile office? As I walked into my room, Teo said with the playfulness returning to his voice, “damn, I really do love peaches though”

I just shook my head and turned on the light in the room.

“Hey fuck you turn it off,” the person in the other bed said.

“I'll be done in a second”

“Ok, but hurry up,” he said before rolling back over with the pillow on top of his head.

Track was my roomie. I was ok with that; he’s a decent kid. Plus, watching him get tongue-tied when I wear my jockstraps was going to be a serious source of amusement. I rifled through the dresser until I found sweat shorts with the DPT in greek on them. I tossed on the shorts and turned off the light as I closed the door.

Teo was waiting for me in the common area, ditching his cowboy boots for the barefoot look I was sporting and the same shorts instead of just his briefs. His tattoos still punctuated his incredible muscles. He led the way to the weight room in the maze that was this house. We ended up in a room with a cable rig, several benches, two squat racks, and a massive array of dumbbells.

“Ok, so here's my thought. I ask you a question, you answer it, and we each do a set. Then you ask me, I answer it, and we do a set. Just know, we are way off the map with how this process is supposed to go, so I won't be able to answer some things.”

“Sounds good,” I answered, noting how Teo’s eyes were locked on me.

“Push, pull, or legs?” He said, staring at me

“I guess pull; my biceps need work to catch up to you.”

Teo laughed and grabbed some dumbbells “let's start with some warm-up curls then.” I grabbed some lighter dumbbells and pumped out my set.

“So, when was the first time you saw an Umbrian Novo?”

He was getting right to it. I steeled myself against the wave of emotion sure to hit me.

“I was 10, my mom worked in a diner in town, and my stepdad did odd jobs. Our house was small but enough. The front yard was flanked by giant magnolias, like this house. My stepdad told me several times that if anything were to happen to him, I had to secure five books on his bookshelf. I never understood why but he taught me how to do it in case. Anyway, one day after school, a bunch of us were gonna play soccer at the park for a few hours. I stopped by the diner to ask my mom, and she said don't be out too late past dark. As I left, she said, “love you, Lil buckaroo,” but I kept running. It had to be an hour after sundown by the time I got home, and there was no trace of sunlight left. I walked into the house, and it was wrecked. I slowly moved into the living room and saw my stepdad's shotgun in 3 pieces, like it had been cut by something. Looking over, I saw my stepdad's body trying to claw his way out of the den. I slowly rounded the corner and saw only the upper half of my stepdad's body. He had literally been torn in half. My mother was in a similar shape. The light in the room made no sense, all the lights were on, but the room was incredibly dark, like something was sucking up all the light. When I could see the shadow move, I ran. I grabbed the books, put the moisture packets in the pages, then tossed them in the ziplock bags and tossed them into the waterproof backpack just like my stepdad said. I grabbed the last gun in his broken safe, a flare gun, and shot it into the room with the shadow. It immediately changed shape as if it was hurt. I fired the second flare into the room and ran out of the back of the house. I stowed the bag with the books in the shed exactly like my stepdad showed me. Then I sat and watched as my entire life burned away. The flares caught the house on fire. We were so far out of town that there was no one to call 911 until it was too late… that was the first time I saw and fought a shadow.”

“A flare gun, good move. Do you remember what those books were”

“Hey, it's my turn for a question, ain't it, President Teo?”

“I guess it is after this set it is,” he answered with a chuckle.

We pumped out another set. The veins in both our arms pumping out a bit with each curl. I could feel my armpits getting a little sweaty.

“Ok Novo fair is fair, yer turn for a question,” Teo said, putting his dumbbells back in the rack to stand in front of me. I rested the ends of the dumbbells on my thighs and decided to be similarly bold with my question.

“How did I summon a sword and shield made of blue light?”

“Well, there are two answers to this, and neither you are going to like. Answer one is that we don’t know. No one has ever managed to summon weapons and beat brothers in combat during their assessment. To top it off, no one has remembered their assessment as far as we know. The longer answer is that you aren’t ready to hear it, even if I could tell you. You jumped way ahead of the pledge process here. All I can tell you is that if you stick this out, you will never be defenseless like you and Track were at the laundromat.”

Teo grabbed the dumbbells off the rack, and I lifted the ones sitting on my thighs for us to pump out another set.

“Ok, shoot,” I said as I finished my last curl.

“What were those books your stepdad had you save?”

“God, I still remember the titles,” I said with a chuckle, “Principles of Light, Principles of Shadow, Sparks, and Flame, From Ember to Conflagration, and The Princess Bride. He used to read the last one to me when I was sick, just like the movie.”

“I know it's your turn, but if you had to, could you still find that bag?” Teo asked.

“Probably, assuming the area hasn't been clear-cut.”

“Good good…” Teo said, trailing off into thought.

I started to pump out my set, and Teo seemed to come out of his reverie to pump out his.

“Since you got two, can I get two?”

“I guess it's only fair,” Teo said with a slight grin.

“What does all this look like for me going forward? I gotta work, do class stuff, and stuff here at the house. Am I going to be able to do it?” I said, genuinely concerned if I would be able to meet my requirements.

“Well, this week is hell week. It's your most challenging week as a pledge, and you are off all week according to your boss. As for the rest of it, I'm not going to lie; it's going to be hard as hell. But you have seven other guys in your pledge class to lean on; you got ten brothers living in this house and 12 more off campus you can ask for help and all your network of brothers who have done all this and graduated. You aren't alone in any fight.

To answer your second question before you ask it, these boys will need you more than you know. You are here to help them as much as yourself. They are all just as scared as you. But, like those nights on patrol, you know what needs to be done. Despite all your fear and doubt, you've done the impossible before. Keep it up. I’d finish this workout with you, but Tyler is going to wake you boys up in about 10 minutes. Might wanna get Track up before he gets you boys in trouble.”

And like that, his weights were racked and he was walking down the hall. I just sat there confused. Talking with Teo was so easy that it took me a minute to realize he hadn’t actually answered anything except to trust him and stay on the path. Well, that isn't entirely true. Teo showed a few of his cards, he wants my stepdad's old books, and I’ve upset the system a bit with my assessment.

He also said the boys are going to need me. I assumed he meant the pledges. Seven guys are relying on me, and I only remember meeting one. Who are these other guys that need me?

Only one way to find out.

I got up from the bench, put my weights up, looked at myself in the mirror, and smiled. Teo was right; except for the bad arm, I wasn’t bad to look at. Maybe I was in the right place.

I made my way back to the pledge common room in the maze of the house, taking special care to try and memorize the route as much as possible. I got back to the common room before Tyler and the other brothers. I darted into my room and turned on the light.

“5 more mins, mom,” Track said, almost slurring his words. I wondered if this would be an ongoing morning struggle for him or just a hungover morning issue.

“Come on Track, get up, brothers are gonna wake us soon and we should be up for whatever nonsense is gonna happen.”

He grunted and rolled over, tighter in his cocoon of a blanket hiding from the light. The kid really loves his sleep.

“I'm gonna go wake up the other pledges; when I get back I'm gonna be getting you up too.”

“Nnnnnoooo,” Track said while burying his head into his pillow. I had to admit it was kind of cute. I left our room with the lights on and quickly ran through the other rooms to wake up the other pledges. Most were in similar shapes as Track but at least acknowledged that we needed to start waking up.

When I got back to the room, Track had unrolled himself somewhat but was still very much trying to sleep with the pillow over his head. So I did what I did with many a private who didn't want to wake up for inspection; I pulled off his blanket. The chilled air immediately hit his naked body, bringing him out of his sleepy reverie. I looked down and saw his pert butt moving up and down. The horny little fucker was humping his fist in his stupor. I watched for a few minutes till I could see Nick and Tyler headed down the hall to us.

I went into the dresser and grabbed Track's sweat shorts before stealing his pillow away from his head.

“Ugh jerk,” his sleepiness replaced with a sense of horny urgency.

“Hey kiddo, throw these on; the brothers are about to wake us up.”

He just groaned in response and sped up his fist pumping his meat. It was an impressive cut weapon. His fist barely made it around the girthy monster with a wide urethral bulge feeding his angry red head a constant stream of precum. Track was hard up, and part of me enjoyed seeing him so desperate to get off.

“Later kiddo, throw those shorts on”

He finally let go of his bone, allowing it to twitch desperately in the open air.

“Pledges! Rise and shine!” Tyler yelled from the common area.

“Come on kiddo, if we get time later, ill try and make it up to ya,” I said to Track with a wink as he reluctantly pulled his sweat shorts up. His quivering meat pumped a wet spot unto the maroon material where his somewhat obscene bulge ended. He glared at me for a second before getting a troublesome grin of his own and grabbing his bulge.

Watching all of this had made my own bulge grow, but thankfully my foreskin was keeping my precum from becoming a puddle on the front of my shorts.

“Come on, champ, let's give these boys a wake-up show,” I said with a wink.

We stepped out and saw we were not the only ones suffering from hangovers and morning wood. Two pledges from different rooms hadn’t quite woken up after I got them started and walked out as Track almost did, throbbing cocks waving in the air. A few others had found their underwear from the night before. The rest stood like Track, Myself, and the Brothers in our maroon sweat shorts with the greek lettering.

“I see it's a hard morning boys,” He said with a chuckle.

“If you don't remember me from last night, I'm Tyler and welcome to Delta Psi Theta. Last night y’all showed us something that makes us want to call you brothers. However, you have to earn that title. You will have eight weeks to prove to us that you are ready to be a brother. That’s a little less than half a semester since there are no classes this week.

Ultimately, everything about this process is up to you. If you quickly become brothers, work together to solve issues, and fight hard to achieve the tasks we give you, these next eight weeks will be a breeze. If you fight hard against each other, work against each other, and quickly fall into chaos when trying to achieve the tasks we give you, these next eight weeks will be torture for all of us.

We genuinely want to call you men brothers, to know that we have all gone through hell together. To make that the case, the next few days will be a taste of what kind of hell the next eight weeks can be. Rise above it, fight through it, and make sure everyone gets to the other side, understood?

Welcome to hell week boys,” he finished with a cackle.

What the fuck had I gotten myself into…