Chapter 2: Awaken 2

If what she just felt was wrong, then at least her eyes did not deceive her. She saw it. The three lines were like the careful work of a careless tattoo artist on his chest, and that relevant glow in the pupil of his eyes.

"Oh No! oh no!" She kept on muttering to herself. "It finally came!... It finally happened!"

"Damn it! am not ready, I have to update the plan."

She ran into the house not noticing the grocery bags that had escaped her hands to the ground.

In a world with a sky always filled with snow all year round. On a building so high it made the Eiffel tower look like a proud dwarf, a man stood on an oval-shaped balcony wide enough to comfortably park a passenger plane. He had proud eyes that seemed to look down on the world. He was slender in stature, and even though he had hair as white as the snow that fell around him, he had a very young face.

He looked far ahead, to the horizon. His sight was so strong that he could see little children playing in the snow and it made him smile.

He was still enjoying the view when a dark-skinned woman wearing a tight overall kente cloth with two rows of goomba beads around her neck strolled gently to his side. Her steps were so light, it seemed a cat walked over. But before she came close enough, she heard his voice.

"I enjoy my peace and quiet 'Shadower'. If this is not important, I might decide to remove your noisy legs."

She fidgeted a bit but still took a step forward and bowed deeply, intentionally exposing her chest. "My lord, it rang. We've found him."

The man's tranquil eyes became brighter but immediately resumed their calmness. He closed his eyes and opened them again. Took a deep breath in and out. Seeming to have arrived at a decision. "where?"

"The central messis humus. Angola, my lord."

"Which family's outpost is closest to it?"

"House Nathifa."

"Oh! this is going to be quite troublesome. If it is really him, it is going to get really messy. Am sure the other families are already aware. Your job is simple. OBSERVE!"

"Yes, my lord." A firm reply drifted in the air as she vanished from his presence.

Somewhere in another castle, a very fat man stood in front of a painting of a double-headed snake on the wall and sipped gently on his cup of wine as he listened to a report from a kneeling man behind him. He turned around and grabbed the man by his neck. "Are you sure it is him?"

"Yes, my lord! the wavelengths match." the man replied struggling for his life."

"Send the Gardeners. We have to make contact first!"

"Yes my leash!" the man acknowledged massaging his neck as he left the room.

Several scenarios such as these happened simultaneously at different places, only with different results.

Tiny was like white on rice, stuck to Derek's arm. As usually of cause, enjoying the privilege of sitting close to him. Not that anybody wanted to, except for muscle man Aesir of cause-whom was the attraction of her constant bullying. He was chased away to another sit with a glare.

Aesir sat two sits behind the duo, close to Madeline. But she barely noticed his presence as her eyes were fixed on the shameless Tiny. She was a pretty girl by social standards, having dark curly hair that stopped at her shoulders. With Pretty large and radiant eyes, a pair of dimples on the side of her cheeks that always had the attention of people whenever she smiled.

She envied Tiny a lot. For her boldness but also despised her for her lack of morals. Madeline always had a body quite muscular for a girl. Therefore, always felt socially insecure and that made her timid by nature. She also had a crush on Derek. In fact, it dated far back to before Tiny came to the orphanage. Except for her method of expressing it at that very young age was quite special. The pull your hair and take your lunch money kind of special. But she was not to be blamed. A little history hid behind her misunderstanding. She didn't know she got it wrong until her current competition arrived.

Tiny was talking, but Derek could not hear her, or rather he could, except it was drowned by a whole lot of other voices. It felt like thousands of tiny ants were crawling on his brain. All trying to get his attention. One more than the other. An intense headache hit his head, and he thought his mind was about to tear.

He held his head in pain and just as it came, it left. It was clear again.

"Derek...Derek...Derek! Are you okay?" A voice asked worriedly. He lifted his head and saw a concerned Tiny.

"No, it's nothing. I just need my aspirin."

"Are you sure? You were murmuring words...in a different language."

"Yes, am okay. It was just hmm... Klingon. You know, from Star Trek." He smiled nervously.

"Okay, if you say so. Wait, what's Klingon?" She asked as she handed him the small bottle of aspirin.

Derek was thinking about what had just happened to him when her words hit him and he grabbed her by the shoulders.

With a sharp look in his eyes, he glared at her. "What!!! You don't know Klingon? That's like the greatest language created in cinema history"

"Wait! You don't know Klingon. How dare you?" A nosy Aesir eavesdropped on the conversation and butted in. At this point, Tiny knew she shouldn't have asked such a question. Especially around these fanboys. A world of regret was about to ram into her ears.

The school bus arrived at its destination and the students alighted it. A staggering Augustina came down with a dazed look on her face, muttering something that was definitely in a foreign language. She could swear she just heard the full story on the Star Trek franchise from two nerdy psychos, and it was all in less than twenty minutes.

The ring of the school bell woke her from her stupor. Students ran towards the large entrance of the school. Some were gisting, trying to catch up on undone assignments, some on the previous night's game.

Tiny took Derek's arm as there walked into the hallway, claiming to help the weakling against rushing. They entered the classroom and each took their sit. A few seconds after sitting, a man walked into the class. He looked to be in his mid-thirties. He was dressed in a black suit and a red tie around his neck. He had a black briefcase in one hand and an umbrella in the other, which was quite puzzling since the sky was clear but no one dared to ask why.

He took his seat at the teachers' desk and proceeded to bring out several textbooks. All of which annoyed the students, solely because of their bulk size. He took one of the books in one hand and slowly flipped through it. Taking his time on its pages as his head kept on nodding in agreement.

He took the chalk and gently walked up to the board, writing two very bold words on it. 'HUMAN PSYCHOLOGY.'

"Bring out your notebooks and please note as I go on," He said.

"We are going to be addressing the reasons for procrastination as assessed by Dan Ariely in chapter 6 of his book titled 'Predictable Rational'. In this book, Dan claims to understand 'the hidden forces that shape our decisions. He partners with a colleague of his to unravel the mysteries of why human beings procrastinate so much and as such used his students as the guinea pigs to prove his theory. He gave three classes an assignment with the first-class the liberty of choosing their own deadline for the assignment before the end of the semester which of cause most, if not all choose the end of the semester. The second class had no liberty to choose a deadline at all and were required to submit their assignments at the end of the semester. The third class, however, was given deadlines on different parts of the assignment throughout the semester. In his findings, he discovered that the third class did better than the first two."

The teacher spoke loudly as he walked about through the tiny alleys formed by the students' desks. He kept on talking as the students jotted down his words when it happened again. Derek grabbed his head. The voices in his mind had arrived. He saw himself as a child being born looking up at his parents who were smiling in joy, then suddenly it changed and he was on a farm with sweat running down his face as he tiled the land and it changed again as he fell in love with a beautiful girl and yet again another change as he caught her with his best friend and stabbed them both out of anger.