The fool

Henry

I woke up at 10 in the morning, struggled to get up, looked out the window, and the sun was there, seemingly motionless and distant. Its light invaded my iris, momentarily blinding me. With a jump, I got out of bed and rushed to the bathroom, hoping it wasn't occupied by one of your three brothers who wake up at the same time. Luckily, it's free today. Quickly, while brushing my teeth, I looked at myself in the mirror. I looked tired, with deep dark circles under my eyes, curly hair forming beautiful coils but seeming wasted by the rest, my face was not harmonious, my skin the color of café au lait, neither white nor black, the result of miscegenation, my eyes were brown, they seemed to contemplate the infinite and nothing at the same time. By this time, my parents were as always working, so each of my siblings prepared their own breakfast. I quickly made toast and cheap instant coffee and ate.

I got up and went to my room to study. The exam period was ending, today was the last test, math, the worst. I knew how to do many things, but simply didn't understand, just like most of my class. I spent the next few hours until I had to go to school, avoiding dealing with my brothers to avoid stressing out, and walked there.

Arriving in the classroom, I came across several groups of people gathered, in the midst of the girls one stood out, she was white as ivory and tall, blond with blue eyes, had a voluptuous body, and eyes full of life and energy. Eris seemed like an untouchable goddess to everyone except those who were exceptional, she wasn't a mongrel like me, she had pedigree. She came from a family with status and money, but not arrogant because of it, nor humble. Simply realistic, with the world's biggest poker face, she often said, "I'm rich and beautiful... so what?"

I was isolated from the rest of the class. I tried to get along with all of them, but it wasn't exactly a successful mission, quite the opposite. Most of the time, I committed a social mistake like staying at others' houses longer than I should, and everyone started to avoid me and think of me as weird. Well, everyone except...

"How are you, Henry?" Eris said as she finished talking to the girls and approached.

Many people didn't understand our friendship; everyone had their theories. Most thought she liked having a little dog, that I must blindly obey her orders or something like that. Another theory said I was also rich, despite everything saying the opposite, but even I couldn't explain this relationship, despite everything. I felt lucky to have a friend like her; she often invited me out and maybe she was the only light I saw at the end of the tunnel, many times she intentionally or unintentionally prevented me from making some irreversible mistakes.

"Hi Eris, everything's the same as always," I greeted her with as much enthusiasm as I could muster. She deserved that, but it wasn't very good anyway.

"That doesn't sound very good, the usual tends to be isolating yourself and playing games all night," she said.

"Please don't try to take away one of the few things I still care about from me."

"Games?"

"Yeah, you wouldn't understand because you don't play, but if you did, you'd certainly agree."

"Come on, you need to do something different, go out a bit, clear your mind. There's a party tonight, I wanted you to come with me. I think you'd like it, and it would be important."

"Last time was a disaster, don't make me remember what happened."

"Come on, it'll be different, it's a new chance to meet new people, maybe someone who'll change your life. If you don't want to do it for yourself, do it for me and for our long friendship."

"Ugh, fine, so be it. But this is the last time I do something like this!"

The bell rang, and everyone sat down. The test began, contrary to expectations, I was doing well, or at least I thought so. After the test, I met up with Eris, who said the test was too easy. She gave me the time and location of the party with an apprehensive look, clearly indicating she suspected I wouldn't go. I ignored it. I went home to get ready, put on jeans and a basic black shirt. Since there was still time until the party, I checked the news. They were quite ordinary; there was only one case standing out at the top of all: cases of missing people. The numbers were ten times higher than last year; the police were desperate trying to figure out the reason and who was causing it. They said they were following the clues left, the newspaper criticized that they hadn't discovered anything so far. I closed the news and went to the party. There was nothing special about it; it seemed ordinary and dull like all of them, but I tried, and after a short time, I was inside with Eris, surrounded by a bunch of unfamiliar people discussing some trendy celebrity. I said I was going to the bathroom and left. This whole action lasted no more than 5 minutes. The last thing I remember is something hitting me on the head as I was returning home.

I woke up.

"Ugh!"

My head hurt, I was dizzy, freezing cold. I took a pill and went back to bed, ignoring everything else. It felt like I was going to split in two; I had never felt such pain, not even when I was attacked in the groin, a pain comparable to childbirth plagued me. I writhed and convulsed in bed; slowly the medicine took effect, and the pain slowly diminished, perhaps not because of the medicine, the possible parasite just seemed to want to be quiet for a while. Then I slept.

Looking around, I was in the hospital. My head began to throb again with less intensity, bearable. The nurses saw that I woke up and called the doctor. At that point, I was terrified. While waiting for the doctor, I tried to process what was happening, my brain creating a thousand and one theories for what had happened. When he finally arrived, my heart froze, it was strange, frightening; the doctor had a mechanical eye that glowed red, his hand was made of a polished metallic alloy.

"Good morning, Ethan."