Chapter 7: Roommate

-Macbeth Hall, Nevermore Academy, Jericho, Vermont

-September 1, 2022

Principal Weems opened the door leading to Joe's room and the first thing he noticed was that it was quite dark with barely any natural light, the second thing was that there was a strange and unpleasant smell that bothered him quite a bit but he didn't comment on it and third was that there was a part of the room that was already occupied by someone, but apparently his roommate was not present at the moment.

"Umm, I'm sorry to tell you that it looks like you'll have to wait to meet your new roommate in person," said the Principal.

"Yeah, that's fine for me though, it gives me time to get settled in the room" replied Joe calmly.

"Well, it's really nice to have someone as patient as you, one must be patient with Macbeth Hall students as they are a bit distracted and impulsive"

'Okey... why I feel that what she truly means is that they are just foolish and aggressive' thought Joe.

"Anyway, if you have any problems feel free to let me know" she added with her usual smile.

"Thank you, Principal, I will..., Oh wait please, one more thing, could you tell me the name of my roommate?"

"Uh-oh yes sure, Mayze Vorhis" answered Principal Weems as she retreated from the room with a smile and let Joe settle quietly into his new room.

As she left, he began to sort through his things and took the opportunity to think about the future Twilight events he knows are coming.

'Well..., let's review what we know. In the future, if everything follows Twilight canon, Bella would supposedly leave Phoenix and go live with her dad in Forks, Washington due to her mom going on a trip with her new boyfriend or husband' Joe thought.

'And so it is at her new school in the town of Forks that Bella meets the vampire Edward and his family the Cullen's, the vegetarian vampires. From that moment on she slowly discovers about the supernatural in the world'

'Well, I could of course stay away from everything involving Bella and the Cullens, but having future knowledge of what will happen is very advantageous and for some reason, it leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth not to take advantage of the knowledge I have'

" Difficult..." muttered Joe a little amused with the awkward situation he found himself in, after all, it wasn't as simple as he thought deciding whether to intervene or not.

'Let's think..., okay, for now, I just need to concentrate on quickly improving my abilities in controlling my shadow to avoid further problems, then I'll decide what I do with the knowledge I have about the Twilight canon' Joe concluded with a firm and determined look on his face.

...

A few moments later Joe's roommate finally arrives and for some strange reason, Joe begins to get a sudden feeling he's never had before...

Mayze Vorhis finally entered the room where Joe was staying accompanied by a beautiful blonde woman who was clearly a senior.

Both of them were already wearing Nevermore school uniforms, the only thing that stood out about them were the sunglasses they were wearing on a completely overcast day.

Also, Joe would have been surprised that the young blonde woman had been able to enter the boys' dormitory when there is supposedly a supervisor to prevent that from happening..., but at this moment Joe didn't get to think about that because, for some strange reason, his whole body started to feel strange, he could almost feel a wave of anger welling up from inside of him.

Joe couldn't understand what this sudden outburst of anger was, but luckily he managed to calm his impulses and looked calmly at his new roommate.

"Hmm, Mayze, we were supposed to be alone," the blonde suddenly said pouting...

"Damn!, I forgot I was assigned a new roommate this year" Mayze commented with annoyance clear in his voice.

Joe just looked at them calmly, he wanted to introduce himself properly but he was currently too focused on controlling his sudden impulses, he really didn't want to happen again something like at his school in Phoenix.

"Yo, new guy!" said Mayze causing Joe to turn his gaze to him.

'Shit..., that annoying tone of superiority in his voice just makes my anger rise' thought Joe making a great effort to control himself, it was rare for him not to be able to control his emotions, he was always the calm and relaxed type just like his mother.

"You're going to have to leave for a few moments, then you may continue sorting out your things and whatever else you want to do. But now outside!" Mayze added in a bossy tone of voice.

Joe stared with his black eyes at his roommate without saying or doing anything...

"Huh?... Are you deaf or just stupid?" asked Mayze mockingly and it was then that suddenly an uncontrollable anger erupted inside Joe.

Before his own roommate and the blonde woman he was with could do or say anything, Joe automatically moved quickly from his spot and moved towards them, grabbed Mayze by the neck, and started to choke him against the wall with all his force.

Unconsciously Joe had also activated his shadow early on preventing the woman or Mayze from moving, so now he had total control over the two of them.

Both Mayze and the blonde woman were completely confused by Joe's sudden attack.

Mayze despite being restrained and being choked by Joe, showed no signs of pain or breathlessness, he just looked at Joe with confusion and anger, while the blonde woman looked worriedly from the side helplessly at the situation, she literally couldn't even move, she thought it was fear that paralyzed her, but that was because she hadn't noticed that it was Joe's shadow holding her frozen in her spot.

"What the fuck are you doing? are you crazy? you couldn't even scratch me fucking idiot, once I can move you're dead" Mayze said angrily as Joe continued to strangle him.

It was quite surprising and strange to see how Mayze didn't seem to be in pain or any other discomfort in the slightest considering Joe had him up against the wall while he was choking him...

A normal person would have passed out or even died by now considering the force Joe was applying to his neck.

Joe just looked at him with his black eyes full of anger without saying anything, but after Mayze's threat, he started to squeeze harder and harder on his neck.

It was then that Mayze opened his eyes wide looking very surprised that Joe had so much strength as to manage to crush his neck gradually.

" You..., im-impossible, who the heck are you?" asked Mayze nervously and in a choppy manner due to the sudden lack of air, he could already feel that he had already broken several bones, and he was now starting to get quite scared as he could feel how Joe's hands were slowly squeezing his neck tighter and tighter, something he didn't expect could be possible.

Joe's fingers were digging hard into his roommate's throat as he stared at him with his black eyes full of anger.

It was only moments later when Mayze was nearly knocked unconscious due to having his neck almost completely crushed that Joe came to his senses and saw what he was doing.

Quickly Joe released his grip on Mayze's neck and also quickly removed his shadow that was restricting their movement, then he took a few steps back and let the woman and man move freely.

Mayze fell weakly to the ground and the blonde woman who noticed that she could finally move ran at an incredible speed to his side and tried to help him.

She still didn't understand what had happened, but she thought that finally her fear had passed and that was why she suddenly managed to move.

On the other hand, Joe was quite worried about what he had done, on his first day at Nevermore and he could have already killed his roommate...

But it was then that he saw Mayze's neck begin to heal quickly, which got his attention as he had literally broken almost all of his bones.

Just as Joe was about to apologize to them, Mayze still weak grabbed the blonde woman next to him and quickly ran out of the room..., they disappeared in a matter of seconds... something surprising considering that Mayze had barely recovered.

When Joe saw this scene he just hoped the Principal wouldn't be too angry at what he had done.

Although he knew he could have killed his roommate with that action, so if she decided to expel him it wouldn't be bad, although he doubted that would happen.

At least Joe witnessed with his own eyes as Mayze recovered quickly, so it was very likely that nothing too serious would happen to him.

"Looks like all I can do now is wait..." Joe sighed wearily as he shook his head.

First, he loses control of his shadow in his class and now he explodes in anger at his roommate to the point of nearly killing him by choking him to death.

'Yeah..., it seems my situation only gets worse... But putting that aside, he was incredibly tough, of what was his body made of...?, to think my fingers hurt from the force I had to put against his neck, so weird..., I guess it must have something to do with his particular characteristics' Joe groaned internally.

"What do I think so much?, I should be glad he was so tough, otherwise I might have killed him" Joe muttered to himself as he collapsed exhausted on his bed.

As strange as it seemed, holding with his shadow for just a few minutes to the two of them was far more exhausting than holding and knocking out his entire class.

'It seems that using my shadow on a normie requires much less effort than on supernatural people... well, it's logical once I think about it, but, weirdly, there's no mention of that in my parallel self's memories...'

'Although my parallel self only knew one supernatural person besides himself and that was his mother, who never used her shadow for anything, she preferred to live as a normie, so I guess it's normal not to know some things...' Joe concluded.

Minutes passed and to Joe's surprise, Principal Weems never came to see him about his aggressive behavior in front of his new roommate.

'Hmm, maybe he didn't say anything' Joe thought.

But after a few hours finally, a man in his 30s/40s walked into Joe's room.

"You must be Joe Schatten, the new student aren't you?"

"That's right, is there a problem...?"

"No, not at all, I'm Mr. Defont, your dorm dad. I'm here to welcome you to Nevermore and inform you about the house rules we have here."

"I see..., in that case, I would like to thank you Mr. Defont," Joe said calmly, but inside he was quite relieved that it wasn't because of what happened with his roommate.

"There's nothing to thank"

"Well, first of all, lights off at 10:00, second, no loud music, third, no girls, ever!, fourth, passes to Jericho are a privilege, not a right, although I understand that in your case with your grades and supposed good disposition, the Principal is willing to give you some privileges... anyway, if you want to go into the local town, it's a brisk 25-minute walk, or there's a shuttle on the weekends..."

"Well, that won't be a problem, I have my own transport" commented Joe.

"Uh-oh yes, your motorbike, I forgot, Principal Weems also took it upon herself to make a parking lot available for you to store it, the Nevermore entrance is no place to leave it. Here!, these are the keys to the parking lot" Mr. Defont said as he handed Joe the keys.

"This..., alright, please give her my thanks," Joe said as he grabbed the keys.

"Yes, of course. Now, the last thing I must make clear to you is that nobody is allowed to use whatever typical outcast singularity they have in the local town. The locals are a tad bit wary about Nevermore, so nothing about making any trouble that could compromise us. Are we clear?"

"Sure, don't worry."

"Great, here's your uniform and you'd better get downstairs, in a few minutes it'll be the Start of Term feast. That's all"

Once Mr. Defont had retired from his room, Joe sighed in relief that nothing had happened yet regarding his roommate, it gave him more time to think.

But for now, he would have to put on his uniform and go to the Start of Term feast.