The Discord

john pecsi



Chapter one:



BEEP!!!BEEP!!!BEEP!!!BEEP!!!

8:35

Morning already? Adam thought, his eyes still closed and his face stuffed into his pillows. A brisk breeze nipped lightly at his cheek and made him realize his window was open. Adam said something about an old hag and his balls being as cold. He snapped his hand over the clock. The beeping stopped. Adam rolled back over and pulled the blankets over his head and fell back asleep.

BEEP!!!BEEP!!!BEEP!!!BEEP!!!

8:45. The alarm clock automatically awoke from the snooze ten minutes later, and was patently pushing Adam to do the same. He again rapped at the alarm.

“OK! I get it… I’m up!” He snapped at the clock.

Adam stumbled out of bed wearing just his boxers. He was just about eighteen, but he could have passed for twenty. He pulled the blankets up to the pillows then blew off at his half ass attempt to make his bed with a ‘fuckit’ gesture, and went to the bathroom.

It was still a little dark outside this morning and Adam forgot to close his eyes and the light practically blinded him when he flicked on the light switch. He winced and clenched his hand over his eyes with one hand and felt his way to the toilet with the other. He urinated and got into the shower.

The water was hot and it relaxed Adam. Relaxed him the same way it always had since he was a child. He closed his eyes and leaned against on of the vanilla walls of the shower. A stream of the wonderful hot liquid ran down his face and into the drain.

“What am I gonna do?” He said as steam began to fog the whole room. “What now?”

He asked himself the question over and over in his mind. Then he asked a few more times. What would he do? He couldn’t fix this, he had no time.

Adam turned off the shower, dried himself, and began brushing his teeth. The mirror showed him the image of a young man looking back, mildly long brown hair was still a wet, messy mop on his head. He finished up and spat into the sink and went back to his room. The light from outside was splitting through the shades into many slits over his bed and floor. The boy put on the same faded pair of faded Dungarees that he’d been wearing for the past two weeks straight. Then he attained a black tee shirt from his closet. Across the front of the shirt, white letters spelled out: ‘bout that time. Adam put on the shirt and also a dark green hooded sweatshirt. He slipped on his green Chuck Taylors, grabbed his backpack, and a pen. Adam ran out of his room and trodded down the stairs.

Downstairs there was the sound of scrambling magazines and news papers. Soon, Adam was running buck up the stairs to his room. He walked in frantically looking around, then went over to his computer desk, snatched his keys, and ran back downstairs and out the door.

Vuuurrrrrmmmm. The engine of his maroon Buick LaSabre hummed to life. Adam switched to reverse and then started out of the parking lot of his apartment complex.

8:57. He’d be late for sure, that wasn’t the question. Now what he was thinking was how late he would be and what excuse he should use?

Umm… my car ran out of gas…yup, just like that, Mr. Laurence, it just ran right out. Or, this cop was being an ass whole and had the latex glove out and everything!

He continued thinking of other excuses he could use, then he slightly spooked himself by thinking what would happen if a cop would really stop him? They all new him, by name, and surely would be happy to nail him for the bag of pot in his old dungarees. It wouldn’t be a surprise in a town like Preport. God, he hated Preport and everything in it. Everyday he only could think about leaving this piece of shit town.

They’re all assholes. Adam thought about ‘choice’ moments he had with them when he went to the high school. The memories of the day rushed back to him like a warm wave of nostalgia. He could smell his old high school. He could feel the sun on his face as he was walked across the parking lot of his school. Then he remembered one of the last days of his senior year; it was last year.



“Duck!” Adam said as he, and another boy, quickly dipped behind a yellow Plymouth.

“Oh man! D’ya think he seen us?” The other boy quietly choked out.

“I dunno’,” Adam replied. “but we shouldn’t wait around to find out.”

The two boys ran down the rows of cars and trucks; flashes of ‘Goodyear’ and ‘Firestone’ flashed by their eyes. Adam followed Kevin as fast as he could move, running hunched over behind the vehicles. They kept running, until the image of two, well polished, businessman’s shoes. Kevin halted immediately, and Adam plunged into the back of him and sent him flying into the cop, knocking him over.



The sound of a horn honking rapidly instantly pulled Adam out of this day dream and back into the real world. As he swerved back into his lane, he checked in all directions for the slightest sign of a set of berries flashing for him. But he saw nothing, and decided to listen to some music.

The boy pulled out his folder of CD’s, pulled a silver disc out, and popped it into the player.

Credence Clearwater Revivle blared from the CD player in the dashboard and Adam sat back and listened to the sounds.

The maroon Buick pulled into the parking lot of the Preport Community College and over to a vacant area under some trees. The spot was in the shade where Adam parked everyday. He hated getting into a steamy, muggy car after four hours of it sitting in the sun. The thought of this made his throat dry and he sipped his soda as he parked his Buick.

9:07.

Yes, he was defiantly late, so Adam decided to take his time on his walk to class. Grabbing his book bag, he popped open the door and got out. Tiny rocks made the ground loose under his feet as he began to walk. He started for the lake that the five buildings of PC College surrounded, when---

“Hey…hey, buddy!”

Adam looked over and to his surprise found the happy face of one of his good friends, Doug Hastings.

“Yo,” Adam said back. “What’s happening?”

“Not much.” The tall kid answered. “How ya been?”

“I’ve been good. You?”

“Oh, things are good, ya’know. I just got that job at the new movie theater. It’s got eight friggin’ screens! Ya things are…sweel.”

As Doug said this, Adam could tell by his eyes, that he truly meant it. This was good, considering three months ago, both of Doug’s parents decided that it was about time they got out of this town as well, and OD’d on a large amount of Valume. Doug wasn’t himself for a long time after that.

But today was different, and it seemed every fucking person in Preport was being effected. Even good ol’ Doug looked happy to see this bright, lively day. Everyone that is, except for Adam, and maybe by chance a walk with Doug would give him time to clear his head and change that. If he only knew then, how much it would.

“So what are you doin’?” Adam asked. “You got class?”

“Naw, I just got out. How ‘bout you?”

“Yeah,” Adam paused long enough for them to catch a bit of a discussion from two passing teenage girls talking about Artte Club. The girls didn’t seem to give them much notice, but both Adam and Doug gave them approving looks.

“Yeah, I do,” Adam said, now facing Doug again. “but fuck it, lets go for a walk. I’m already way in shit for this class.”

Adam pulled a cigarette out from behind his ear and Doug nodded. “Yeah, that sounds like just what the doctor ordered.” They both laughed and headed towards the woods to the left of the lake.

On the way, they saw a group of students walking back and forth from the art building to a camp fire. They were all carrying pottery and other sculptures to an outdoor, pit-fire burn. They all walked, almost in single file, carrying pot after pot. The line seemed endless as the students seeped out of the double doors of the building. Doug said something about them all being like worker ants in a line.

“See man,” He said. “and we’re the queen ants! They’re over there in there little line doin’ all that work. Then theres guys like you and me. Just doin’ whatever, ya’know. Enjoying this awesome day.”

“Yeah, I can see where you’re commin’ from, man.” Adam said, but like always, he had no idea where the hell Doug was coming or going from.

The two arrived at the tree stump at the edge of the woods and Doug took a seat while Adam stood. They sat there talking for about fifteen minutes, when Doug got up and they exchanged ‘goodbyes’ and ‘seeya laters’, and went there separate ways.



II

Adam walked into the building that housed his classroom. The hue of everything changed, from a light blue to a cloudy orange, as he stepped through the threshold. There was no one in the hallway, but he hadn’t expected there to be anyway. Muffled voices from the classrooms tried to reach him, but were stopped by the doors; he only heard the low hum of the florescent lights.

His sneakers made light taps on the tiled linoleum floors as he made his way down the hall. Adam still had no clue what he was going to tell his Physics teacher about the three weeks of classes he ‘slept through’. He didn’t even know if he was even still enrolled, or if the professor had already dropped him.

The boy was now halfway down the hall to his class. He began to sweat and shake like he always did when he got nervous. This was not good, it wasn’t going to be a very convincing story if he was trembling and shaking this way and that.

Maybe I’ll tell him I have Parkinson’s. He thought to himself, then instantly a smirk formed on his face. Yeah, right.

Adam began to walk faster as he approached a bulletin board hanging on the right side of the hall. He passed it, stopped, then walked two steps back and turned to look at what caught his eye on the board.

There were so many postings on the board; he didn’t know where to start. Adam’s eyes raced over everything. Music Club meeting, French Club sign up, Cafeteria food menu. He stopped at a post that said ‘guitar lessons’. It was only a white piece of printer paper, and at the bottom there were coupons with the instructor’s phone number. Then he saw another one of these papers with the coupons cut into it, but this one was yellow, and had only about six coupons left.

Adam read out loud. “’Healthy Advice for the Tainted Mind’. What in the fuck is that s’pose to mean?” and he ripped of the little coupon at the bottom.

He looked at the little scrap of paper and to his surprise, it said nothing at all. The only thing on the paper was an arrow; and it pointed to the right.

Now what does that mean? He thought as his eyes followed the arrow and he soon answered his own question.

Down the hall, to the right, was a man standing quietly with a queer look on his face. He was dressed in a blue business suit and Adam first thought he was a professor.





III



The man in the suit moved with an eerie speed as he waved to Adam. It looked as though he was stuck in slow-motion. Adam only stood stiff as the man beckoned to him. The man turned (still moving in slow-mo) and started down the hall to his left. With no action by his part at all, Adam slowly began to follow the man. As he crept forward, slowly down the hall after the man, a small piece of paper with an arrow drawn on to it fell to the ground in his tracks.

The man in the suits foot had just passed the hallway and was now out of vision & Adam’s body was moving all on it’s own to peruse him.

What am I doing? Adam thought as he attempted to clear his head and turn around to go to class like he had intended, but it was impossible - As was the task of getting his against the “follow” order that was burning a hole through his brain. The more he cleared his head of chasing the man the arrow on the paper had pointed at, the louder the voice in his head ordered him to:

Follow…

After him!

Faster! He’s getting away!!!

Follow…

There he is!

Follow…

Adam rounded the corner and felt a big thunk on the other side as if had ran into someone. Instantly he thought it was the slow-motion man. He stepped back.



IV



Molly Wize stepped out of her Chemistry class with a dosle walk. Partly because of the test she just bombed, and partly because of the test she is about to, in fact, bomb.

“Chemistry is supposed to be your thing, Molly. She scolded herself.

The eighteen year old adjusted her backpack from one shoulder to the other, then she paused to pull her hair back and held them loosely with a hair tie that she kept around her wrist. Her dark red locks tightened into place and she began to mope her way down the hall of PC College. She came to the end of the hall and stopped dead as a long-haired boy ran right into her.

After their chance collision the red haired girl would have crashed to the ground if Adam hadn’t have snapped out of his daze(if you would call it that) in time to reach forward and grab the shoulder strap of Molly’s backpack with his free hand. When Molly opened her eyes she could see that she was leaning backward at a forty-five degree angle, suspended by the strap of her backpack in this boy’s outstretched hand.

“Excuse me.” They both said at the same time.

“No really,” Adam looked in to the girl’s eyes when he said this and paused before he could choke out “…it’s my fault.”

He could barley get those last words out because he was stuck in yet another trance, this one being the red haired girls green eyes. They glittered when she blinked and Adam swore to himself that the room got a bit dimmer for the second those jewels were closed. Molly’s eyes were the brightest color of emerald Adam had ever seen on a human. They were perfect. Beautiful – hell she was beautiful. He could only stare and hope not to drool.

“It’s ok.” Molly was still looking at him leaning back and suspended by Adams hand. “Um, ya think you could pick me up?”

Adam jumped at this. “Oh, Ya…uh sure.” And he pulled her back upright.

“Thanks.” She smiled and walked around Adam and back onto her path with a slight grin on her face and for the moment, she had forgotten all about her exams- For the moment anyway.

Adam slowly turned around, as his eyes couldn’t help themselves but follow that brilliant color of the girl’s hair. She got halfway down the hall and Adam remembered about the slow-motion man in the suit. He turned back quickly to find him but saw no one. The strange urge he had to follow the man had not just subsided, but he felt like it was never there to begin with. Then he remembered that he had a class to go to plus a lot of explaining to do.



V



Adam retraced his steps back down the hall to the bulletin board when he saw it on the ground where he had dropped it.

Don’t pick it up, man. He told himself. If you know what’s good for you, just walk passed it, don’t even look at it, just get to class.

Doing what was best for him was a road less traveled for Adam. After all, he had been smoking cigarettes since he was thirteen. So of course, Adam once again took the familiar path and look down to his feet. There on the floor was the piece of paper, but to his surprise, the arrow was no longer the subject of the coupon.

“Well, of course.” Adam thought out loud. “Of Course reality would finally start and stop at my convenience. What an asshole I am for thinking that would never happen.”

Adam snatched the coupon off the ground and was not completely surprised to see that the arrow that was printed on the paper, but in it’s place was a few words in sloppy handwriting.



Down the rabbit’s hole we go!!!

“So, you’ve chosen the blue pill eh, Neo?”

Adam jolted at the voice and turned around to see the slow-motion man standing right in front of him. Seemingly still stuck in slow speed.

“Okay, so who are you?”

The man stared blankly long enough for Adam to become uncomfortable when the silence was finally broken.

“You wouldn’t believe me at this point even if you tried. Your minds not ready…but soon. So lets keep this short.” The man said this and his lips did not sync up to his voice completely.

“Try me.” Adam replied confidently.

There was another awkward pause and delay, that of which reminded Adam of the channel six news anchors talking to a correspondent in the field.

“Believe me, we have.” Adam stared and cocked his head and the man smirked. “See…”

This whole conversation was beginning to make Adam uneasy.

“Right now I am just here on orders to dispense you some…Healthy Advice.” The man smiled the most pearly-white smile he had ever seen on a human being. “Stay away from her.”

“Stay away from who?” Adam new exactly who; that girl’s image had been bunt into his mind and he dark red hair was beginning to blaze a whole in his skull. Then there were her green eyes-

“Yes, her!” The man scolded. “Stay away from that one.”

“Hold on chief, I don’t even know her!”

“Well keep it that way.” The man glanced down at his wrist and Adam could see an ancient watch of gold. “The last thing we need is six thousand years of planning to go awry because you couldn’t keep it in your pants.”

Six thousand years? What the hell does that mean?

“You’ll find out soon enough. Just take my advice and stay away.”

Adam stared in astonishment. Could he read my thoughts?

“Of course I can. Just remember what I said.”

Adam glared at him and said “Sure thing, Chief.” In his best ‘eat me’ fashion and looked at the scrap of paper in his hand. It was-



Blank…



He looked up and the man was gone.

Vanished?

Forgotten.

However the means, the mysterious man, who wore a black business suit and suffered from a serious cause of ‘lagging’, was gone; and now all he could see was-



Blank…



Well not blank in the same sense that the paper was white, but blank in the way a stapler would look placed casually next to the Mona Lisa. Because just as he looked up, that crimson and emerald glow that was so new to him (and now apparently forbidden) engulfed the hallway of Preport Community College. Adam started at first but then relaxed. He remembered what the slow motion man had said. But as all young do when faced with the choice of Rationality and love, the latter is all too often the victor.

You see when the slow-motion man was attempting to persuade Adam away from the red haired girl. Adam’s mind was as you know ‘on fire’. And a brain fire makes it really hard to keep interested in what some stranger is saying. The only thing he wholeheartedly took in was-



Blank…



“Hey.” Adam yelled down the hall smiling. “Hey!”

Molly was startled by the unfamiliar voice and jolted to her right.

“Hi.” The boy that nearly knocked her over and topped off the shitstorm that was the life of Molly Wise, was walking toward her, grinning like an idiot. “I never got your name.”

“Oh…its Molly. Molly Wize.

“I’m Adam.” He looked at the thick book in Molly’s hand. “Advanced Chemisty, hu? Wow how’s that working out?”

So there it was. Did you see it? Right at that moment there were sparks. What? You didn’t see them? That’s alright weary traveler. Don’t worry, you’re with the many. The huge amount of ‘manys’ that never see sparks when they occur. Either flashing into existence in the flick of a match, or an eyelash; or slowly burning out over eons. But all you need to know is I see them and I saw the sparks around Adam and Molly that day and I’ll never forget them. How could I? If you lit the flint on the Atom bomb, could you forget? For that very spark was the initial flake of ice that snowballed its way to the untimely destruction of the world, the universe, all of existence.

Would you like to see them as well, weary traveler? Well choke down that yummy blue pill called,

DISCORDIA

….see your doctor for details