Late to school

Kai felt the light envelop his being, and suddenly everything changed.

No more was the unending darkness.

There was no longer the oppressive weight on his soul. Instead, in its absence, he felt an overwhelming, undeniable hunger.

As the light faded away, he could see the world around him. He was floating, high above the ground he could see beneath him.

As the land flew by beneath him, he suddenly felt a tug.

No, not something pulling him - It was as if he were drawn towards something, perhaps the only thing, that could sate his hunger.

Down, down, down, towards the ground, and through the roof of a home he went.

The sensation of passing through the roof was an unfamiliar one. It practically tickled. But that feeling was soon forgotten. Because at that moment, he saw it.

A boy, with water leaking from his eyes, pulling himself out of bed. His sheets seemed to follow him as he struggled to stand.

Kai froze, all attention focused on the poor boy. At that moment, all he knew was that boy was the key to curing the unbearable hunger he felt.

Kai, when asked about the event months later, could not say what had happened next. It was a blur. He clearly remembered hovering above the glassy-eyed boy, when he felt inexplicably drawn to him.

Next thing he knew, he was lying down on the floor in the body of Kyle Whitaker.

}nnnggghhh{

Kai heard a groan, and laid there for seconds before realizing it came from his body. He flexed his fingers, and smiled.

'Boy oh boy was it good to be back.'

Back to what, though, Kai could not tell you.

He laid on that floor for many hours that night, slowly re-learning how to move a physical body.

He stared up at the ceiling, watching as his eyes slowly began to adjust.

There was a glass-filled panel in the wall (a voice inside him called it a window) that let in enough light to illuminate the room. As he let his gaze wander across the room, the same internal voice seemed to inform him of anything he did not already know of.

Kai honestly was not sure if he was receiving external aid, or just remembering these things for himself. After an indeterminate amount of time in the void, he couldn't seem to remember much of anything from before.

As he lay there thinking, he seemed to settle into his body more properly. By the time he had learned everything there was to know about this room he was in, he felt confident enough to attempt walking.

In the same way he seemed to understand the objects, the instructions for "walking" appeared readily in his brain.

After a couple of laps across his bedroom, Kai staggered, and realized he was quite tired.

However, he was not ready to rest just yet.

Only a fool would choose to settle into his current situation without trying to understand more of the world around him. He opened the door, and snuck out into the rest of the house.

For the next few hours, Kai wandered around, learning about the wonders of gas stoves and electric fridges and water faucets. He may or may not have also taken the opportunity to run his fingers across many of the new textures around him as well.

The couches, the pillows, the wooden cupboards with their metal handles, stone countertops, rough sponges, and the peppered walls. After so long feeling nothing, this was perhaps the most pleasant thing Kai could imagine doing, just feeling one thing after the next.

However, his lack of sleep was a ticking time bomb, and eventually he could stand it no longer.

Exhausted, he headed towards the bed and curled up to sleep, ignoring his sheets that still lay on the floor.

~~~~

}BANG{

}BANG{

}BANG{

Kai awoke to painfully bright sunlight streaming through the window and harsh banging on his door.

"Ky! What are you still doing in bed!? You have school today!"

Unwilling to comprehend these new words and phrases, he rolled onto his stomach, intent on returning to his blissful sleep.

Unfortunately for Kai, the woman outside his room was not ready to concede just yet.

"Kyleeee! Open your freaking DOOR! I've gotten five phone calls this morning! Logan says you haven't picked up all day!"

Still unwilling to give up on the idea of more rest, Kai maintained his silence as he tried his best to tune out the cacophony outside his door.

"Kyle. If you do not respond to me in the next 5 seconds, I am coming into your room!"

Suddenly, new information flew into Kai's mind. Apparently his lack of pants (which he had removed during the night because they were scratchy) would be considered indecent by polite society.

In a panic, he shouted "Give me a minute! Alright!?"

While scrambling to put back on those fabric chains, the voice outside his door continued to drone on.

"Oh my god, Kyle, you scared us! Logan texted me thinking you were DEAD! You haven't taken ANY calls from anyone today! It's noon, Kyle! Noon! What do you want me to do about your tardies!?"

A searing pain shot through his head as new information flooded his brain.

[MotherPantsCarsShoesHousesFriendsClassesLoganAshleigheBeccaBiologyHistoryMath]

Kai didn't even realize he had stumbled until he felt his knee collide with the floor.

}Thud{

"Kyle!?"

"I'm fine, mom… just… I'm real tired after yesterday, you know?"

"Alright, Ky, but you do still need to go to school today."

Kai quite honestly had no idea what had happened yesterday. All he knew was he was SORE. So very incredibly sore. He was just thankful she had bought his excuse.

The ride to school was not pleasant. His mother took his tiredness as an excuse to drive him to school, although it was probably best Kai didn't attempt to drive yet anyways.

The ride did provide him with time to think about everything that had happened in the past… however long it had been since the darkness. Although he could not remember anything from before the darkness, he did remember trying his best to not forget… something… which indicated he was someone, or something else before all those years. Or months. Or days. Kai was disturbed by his inability to gauge his time in that cursed space. However, his current situation seemed to be more pressing, so he chose to move on from that line of thought for now.

Considering he was able to phase through walls, he most certainly did not arrive on Earth in a physical body. However, despite pondering upon this for the rest of the ride, Kai was unable to come up with any hypothesis about his current situation.

Jolted back to reality by the sudden braking of the car, Kai had arrived at what he suddenly knew to be his high school, Mountain View High.

He grabbed his bag and hopped out of the car, relieved to no longer need to tune out the grating voice of his mother.

Walking in the front door, Kai was not the least bit excited about experiencing school for the first time.

~~~~

Kyle woke up in a dark room, tied to a chair, a red emergency light blinking overhead. Suddenly, a clown in a mask walked in carrying an axe.

<Oh god. Not a clown… Anything but a clown!>

The clown walked menacingly forwards, shifting the axe into a more active carrying position.

Kyle let out a scream as the clown swung the axe towards his upper body.

The axe severed his neck as Kyle woke up in a cold sweat. He was in a dark room, tied to a chair, with a red emergency light blinking overhead.