Raijinken: The Present - 3. You don't know me (Like you used too).

Chapter 3:

U Don’t Know Me

(Like U Used To)

…Fifteen minutes later

“Hey everybody!” I yelled as I walked through the front door. “I’m back!”

I heard a muffled “Damn.” come from upstairs

I pouted. “Awww…you guys don’t want me here?”

King’s voice drifted from upstairs. “…Is that a trick question?”

“Shut up!” Kai yelled. He appeared from around the corner to stand at the top of the stairs. “How did it go?”

“Ahhh…” I pulled the hood down, releasing my hair from the restraint it was in. “Same ol’-same ol’. Reapers this time though.”

Kai nodded slowly. “Any casualties?”

I shook my head, going up the stairs. “Nope, got there just in time.” I turned and smiled at him. “You know me, always coming a the last minute. Shut up King.”

“What?” He said with that ‘o-so-innocent’ tone of voice.

“You know.”

I walked into my room, shutting the door behind me. Stripping out of my clothes, I made my way over to my bed.

I checked the clock. 5:42 A.M.

(I’ll take a shower in the morning.) I yawned. (No one better come in here, or I swear, I’ll kill someone.)

That afternoon, VCU, Richmond, VA

“Ay yo! Terrance!”

I stood up, turning around from the gym bag I was packing. My friend, Alan, was running towards me.

“Hey man.” I give him a high five when he got close enough to me. “What’s up?”

“Nuthin’ much. You going to the b-ball game tonight?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know man, I got a lot of studying to do. Test in chem’ tomorrow, y’know.”

“Aw…come on man, you’re a baseball player, you don’t have to study! And you’re our star pitcher? No one is going to make you fail. Besides, I got this girl comin’ wit’ me, and she bringin’ her friend. I need you to keep her distracted while I make da moves on her friend, man. Come on!

Blank stare. “So, lemme get this straight; you want me to go with you to the game so you can get a girl to drop her panties for you. Durin’ this time, you’re gonna to make me spend time wit’ some girl that I don’t know, and who I probably won’t like, just so you can get some?”

“Well, when you put it like that…”

I turned back towards my bag. “Well, then you know my answer. Later man, and good luck with this girl…what’s her name?”

“Uh…Yolanda, or somethin’ like that.”

I shook my head, laughing slightly as I made my way out of the locker room.

You know, it’s weird; you’ve spent all this time with me, and you really don’t know me do you?

Name’s Terrance Aboris. Yeah, I know; weird last name right? Apparently, I’m a descendent of someone from some country in the Mediterranean.

Anyway, as you heard from Allen, I’m our school’s star pitcher on the baseball team. I’m even pretty good at bat with a .758 batting average. So pretty good? Yeah. I would say so myself. I’ve also been doing judo since I was a little kid, so kicking ass is never hard for me.

Grew up in this town, in the suburbs if you want to get technical with it. As for what I look like; 6’4, muscular (I was just at the gym, right?), tan skin, black hair, blue eyes. Let’s see, anything else? Oh! Shoe size: 13.

We all know what that means, don’t we people?

Big shoes.

Haha.

I crack me up.

But that’s enough about me.

I made my way back to my suite dorm room, gettin’ ready for a night of studying, when a loud noise erupted from my room.

Now, normally, you would think that I would be surprised by something like this happening.

Yeah…not so much.

My roommate, let’s call him Ian, has some…issues. Dude likes to party.

A lot.

He’s a rich kid from somewhere else in the country; I really don’t know which part because the two of us never really talk. And for some reason, ol’ boy thinks that he is better than most other people, so he has a real ‘jerk complex’ going on. Yet, for some reason, people still like to party with him.

Sometimes in our dorm.

Without me knowing about it…

No one better be in my room.

I put my key into the lock, throwing open the door as I make my way inside to the chaos that is my room.

Silence.

There are about 12 people in here, and it is completely silent.

What the hell?

I made my way to my room, staring at them out of the corner of my eye.

Something isn’t right here.

These people were just loud as all hell not two seconds ago, and now they’re quiet as field mice.

Creepy doesn’t even begin to describe the sensation that I’m feeling.

I feel their eyes boring into my back as I went into my room. I quietly close the door behind me as I listen for any movement outside.

Still nothing. No whispered voices, no loud breathing, no subtle movements…

Nothing.

Now, being officially creeped out, I quickly found my chemistry book and made my way out of my dorm, careful to look straight ahead and not catch anyone’s eye.

The music started as soon as I stepped out of the door, and voices soon accompanied it in an excited chatter. I exhaled, letting go of a breath that I had not realized I was holding.

I started walking to the library, thoughts going through my head about those people.

Hopefully, I can get concentrated on chemistry so I don’t fail tomorrow.

Basement of the Mansion

“Hmmm…” Aare started as he looked at the map. A green light was blinking on the monitor before it disappeared.

Zephyr put the tool he was working with down. Coming to stand behind him, he leaned on the chair, searching the monitor for any disturbances.

“What’s the matter?”

Aare shook his head. “It was nothing; I thought I saw something on the screen, but it might have just been the blowtorch you were using. It doesn’t matter.”

Zeph nodded. “Well, in that case; come on. I’m finally finished with the modifications.” He pressed a button on the console, lifting the table behind him to stand up vertically.

Aare jumped out of the chair to stand in front of the table. “You think they’re going to like it?”

Zeph came and grabbed him by the waist, pulling him towards his body. “Oh baby, trust me they’re gonna love it.” He motioned him towards the elevator. “Now come on; we’ve got some things to do…”

A smirk appeared on Aare’s face. “Oh? What kind of ‘things’ do you have in mind?”

The elevator started as Zephyr spun him around, kissing him hard against the metal of the elevator wall. “Guess.”

“I don’t think I have to.” He kissed him again as the elevator closed its doors.

Upstairs

“Come now child! You want to save him from me? From what you know that I will do to him?”Malevolent laughter erupted from his mouth as he choked Zhenzi.

“Let him go Cronos!” My fury was unimaginable. The ground around me was singed as lightning raced along the ground from my body.

“Let him go?” He chuckled. “No, I don’t think I will.”

I couldn’t risk attacking him, incase he ended up hurting the person who I wanted to protect.

Cronos knew this.

“If you truly want him back, come and bow at my feet.”

I could not think of a way to get past him. I was fast, but I knew that my grandfather would just stop time and catch him.

I had no choice.

I slowly walked over to the elder god, withdrawing the lightning back into my body. I knelt in front of him, bowing my head.

Cronos smiled wickedly. Kneeling down, he spoke in my ear. “Did you really think that I would let him go?”

A beam of light shot from his finger, as a yell erupted from my throat.

“NO!!!” I jumped from the bedding surrounding me, sweat running down my face as the lights flickered dangerously before breaking.

“RAI!! What the hell?!” King burst into the room, pausing as he saw in the state I was in. “Rai…?”

“It was the dream again,” Kai came from behind him. “Wasn’t it?”

I nodded. I was shaking, barely able to see past the hair that was plastered to my forehead. Kai came to sit beside me.

He put his hand on my back. “Rai…we thought you gotten over this.”

“I did too.” I wasn’t surprised at how weak my voice sounded. “But I guess that the idea of being so close to finding him again brought back the bad memories along with the good.”

We were silent for a moment.

King was the first to speak. “Are you going to be okay Rai?”

I nodded again. “I’ll be fine. You two go back to your room alright?” I could see that they weren’t convinced. I waved them out. “Go! I’ll be fine.”

They stared at me for a moment, before sighing. “Alright.” Kai conceded. “But call us if you need anything, okay?”

“Fine, fine. Now get the hell out! I wanna go back to sleep.”

“OK.” They left, closing the door behind them.

The slight smile dropped from my face. I was no where near OK.

I got up, ignoring the slight chill as the cold air hit my naked body. I went to the windowsill, sitting down as I stared into the stars.

A group of them looked like a constellation of his face.

God I miss him.