Original Souls (A World Apart #1) (21 page)

During his stay at Aurora Boreal, Corinth had been afraid of these sparsely lit, by electronic torch lights, hallways in the tower. He didn't like the humid feel of them. He didn't like the musty smell of them. But most of all, he didn't like the way they presented themselves. There was an eerie shadow that seemed to follow him wherever he went. That would be okay, had it been hisown shado
w—
but it definitely wasn't. It had a mind of its own and didn't always move with you. Sometimes it moved around you, just the way it did right now, as Corinth quickly traversed the halls. He held tight to his dad's hand on the left. He jumped as they turned every corner. They were working their way down to the vestibule of the tower. They were situated in the middle of its height, so they had a bit of a ways down before they reached the exit.

"Why do you keep spooking every time we round a corner?" Criston asked.

"I
t’
s the shadow. It's following us," he spoke with a whisper. He didn't want to alert the mysterious figure that he was aware of it.

"Is that what's bothering you?" Cris seemed relieved. He thought Cory was having some kind of psychic episode. He was glad that his boy just had a case of the frights. "Corinth, that shadow is the Keeper of the tower.

"The keeper?" Corinth questioned with a frown.

"Yeah, his shadow can be anywhere at any tim
e
… within the tower. That's why they call it the Watchtower. The Keeper is the one who's been keeping watch for ... I don't know, centuries."

"Try several millennia, old friend!" came a haunting voice that sent Corinth running behind his dad's back for cover.

"What is that thing?" Corinth yelled like a mini-madman.

The Keeper retracted himself. He was hurt that he was considered a 'thing' in the dilated turquoise eyes of this unique,strange little boy. Many of the students never visited the tower for that same reason. They thought the Keeper to be an ugly monster. He pushed back up the stairs slowly, gliding backward away from Corinth and Criston while staring Cory in the eyes. Corinth tried to hide his face behind Criston again, but his curiosity got the best of him. H
e’
d look out after every few seconds, while Criston allowed the bo
y
adequate time to absorb the foul image of the Keeper.

"Why is it staring at me, dad?" Corinth was looking back at what he considered to be a monster.

"He's afraid of you, Corinth. That's why he won't stop looking at you. It's his duty to give an all seeing eye to what he believes to be threats inside of Aurora Boreal school and the entire town surrounding it.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Corinth shouted. "This ghostly looking thing is afraid of me. I'm just a boy, but he's a monster."

"That's enough!" Cris didn't like that Corinth looked at the Keeper that way. For a long time, Cris was the only one brave enough to enter the tower. He befriended the ghostly looking shadow-man named, Gavin.

The Keeper was tall, thin, and translucently pale. He wore a black velvet hooded cloak that covered his entire body. Though you saw little open skin, you could tell that he had no other clothing on underneath the cloak. He only had one eye. This eye focused his sight with hyper sensitivity. He didn't like to tell many people, but he could see far behind Aurora Boreal. He could even see into other dimensions with no problem. His sight transcending the different realms the Worlds were built within. He could see nearly as much as the Nexus. But one thing he couldn't do was touch anything or anyone he saw. He truly was a ghost in that regard. It left him lonely when Cris was expelled, never to return. Until today, that is.

"Comeback down the staircase, Gavin. I want to properly introduce you to someone. Cris grabbed Corinth from behind him and pulled him out in front. He whispered, "be polite, he's a good friend of mine
.
”

Corinth didn't know if he could, but he figured he'd give it a try anyways. Gavin pulled himself off the top stair, just before the landing, and began to slink back down. His movement crept Corinth out. He looked like a deer that just got hit by a car, and was now making the long journey back to its herd with a signature limp. He moved slow and purposeful. Corinth thought that Gavin did
n’
t look like he had legs underneath that cloak. He just waft his way over the cobblestones like a taut gas form of a one-eyed man. Corinth was too impatient to wait for him to reach that next stone landing where they stood, so he left his father, and walked up a few steps himself. At first, Gavin recoiled. But he quickly understood Corinth's intent.

"Hello, Sen. Gambit," the slinky shadow-man, who had no feet, said while lifting his rigid looking hand to shake Corinth's. Criston looked on with a knowing smirk, but didn't say a word. Corinth hesitated but figured, what's the worst that could happen? He knew his dad was there to protect him. Corinth extended his hand, and as it met with the Keepe
r’
s, it fell straight through. Like it wasn't even there. Corinth fell onto the steps because he leaned inward to shake. He lost his footing when he wasn't met with any counterweight from another hand there to hold him in position. Both the Keeper and Criston burst out laughing as Corinth jumped up and ran back to his father's side.

He watched the shadow-man share in a joke with his dad, and thought it was the weirdest thing. So, to help him understand, the Nexus, whispered in his mind. "Ghost have senses of humor too." Corinth frowned for my statement at first, then gently smiled, looking on at Gavin with an entirely new perspective. His first two days at Aurora Boreal he thought Gavin was a monster. But today, maybe a friend.

The sloth like sleuth worried now as he noticed something he hadn't seen before. "Your hand, old friend ... it is missing?"

Cris looked down at the spot that used to hold his right hand. He had forgotten, because of the severe lack of pain. It was almost like it never happened, that is until Gavin reminded him.

"I'm sorry, friend, I didn't mean to cause you any form of grief," he said with a guilty tone.

"No, i
t’
s no fault to ask a question," Criston informed him."Yo
u’
re concerned, I get it. I
t’
s just that I don't know what to say about it."

"Then say nothing, my friend. Not at least until you're ready," Gavin smiled, and Corinth thought he looked even uglier when he was happy.

Criston smiled at Gavin and came over to give him an air hug. That was the best he could do, considering the Keeper is destined to forever live in the tower as a shadow of a man, for the sake of sight. No other senses existed much in this reality for him. He couldn't smell, taste, hear well, or feel another's touch. The only thing he was good at was seeing things far and wide. But it wholly satisfied him to know that at least one person thought about him in a good way. Criston was good at making others feel good.

Corinth looked at their relationship and thought that it'd be a good idea to get close to Gavin at some point. If not only to hear past stories about his dad. Naturall
y
… so he could use them against his father. But Corinth figured it would take some time before he could warm up to the Keeper of the Watchtower. If only he wasn't so frighteningly ugly looking. And it did
n’
t help, his living alone in a creepy, sinister looking high-rising tower.

"Now go, Sena. Hendrix has already started to waiver in her patience," Gavin's words were so very true. He could see her turning to walk her way up the rest the hill she stood on, formerly waiting for the two of them. So they left the tower, they left Gavin alone again, as usual. But he at least felt something, for the first time in a long while, knowing his friend, Criston, was back in the game.

March 31, 1002 ~ Nightfall

"Why's she walking away from us?" Corinth asked his dad.

Cris told him, "it's because she's used to being in control. The minute someone tries to turn the tables on her she gets ... uneasy." Corinth couldn't help but wonder how his dad knew so much about his teacher. A teacher that hasn't taught him in over a decade and a half. "She'll come around eventually, trust me." Cris looked down into Corinth's turquoise eyes, and smiled as he put his left arm around his shoulder.

They walked onward, trying to catch up with Sena. Hendrix without having to jog up right next to her. She was too fast paced for that to work out, so they started to move faster. They were just a few spacious yards behind her, when Corinth noticed another person on the grounds.

"Who's that?" he asked, looking eagerly over the varied distance of grass and assorted trees.

Cris looked over to the direction he pointed in. He recognized the figure strolling through the fields in a carefree manner. He vaguely remembered this person had a crush on Julia that never set well with him, among other awkward things the guy was known for when they were schooled together. "His famed family name is; The Well Read Walker."

"What's he doing?" Cory spat out without thinking near a thought prior to opening that unnerving mouth of his.

Cris thought that was a weird question. He looked over to Walker in the open fields against the sunset, and then back to Corinth. "After I just told you his full name and title, you don't know what he's doing," he said to the boy with a fatherly frown.

Corinth couldn't help it. He just didn't get what this gu
y’
s deal was. He and some green furred dog were just walking through the meadow with a book in hand. The dog looked dingy and scruffy enough that Corinth assumed it was a homeless man's pet. But this Walker guy didn't look to be very homeless. He just strolled there next to the dog. He held a book in one hand, and a green apple in the other. Every few seconds, he'd do one of two things. Either h
e’
d flip a page in the thick book he was holding up to read, or he'd take a big bite out of his juicy fruit snack. He wore dark green pants that had some faint gray pattern going through them. He also had on a brown plaid shirt, tucked neatly into the pants. A collared shirt, but he had it unbuttoned to the point that it was very noticeable that he had a plain white t-shirt on underneath. He had a friendly face, so Corinth decided he'd go talk to the fellow.

"What are you doing?" Cris noticed Corinth as he began veering away from their intended path.

"I want to go talk to this guy and see what he's about," Corinth informed his prying father. "If yo
u’
re going to just leave me here I should at least know what I'm in store for, right dad?" Cris' face frowned up even more when he said that. Corinth was playing a little mind game. Using what he already knew, from entering his dad's thoughts, against him.

Cris took a second to close his eyes and take a deep breath. As his lungs began to decompress from exhaling that huge collection of air, he started to speak quietly. "Okay, okay, I get it. You're right, and i
t’
s probably best that I talk to Sena. Hendrix alone anyway."

He was peering into his son's eyes through the glare of the sunlight. He put his left hand up against his forehead to block some of the fading glory of the twilight. A few beads of sweat rolled down his forehead, behind his hand pressed up against it, and edged their way into his eyes. It stung pretty bad.

"Ah! Oh, crap that burns!" Cris snapped around, away from Corinth, when the sweat infiltrated his eyes. He rubbed vigorously, trying to settle the sting. When he turned back to the direction of the sun, and his son, the celestial figure was still there in the distant sky, but the kid was gone. Corinth had once again taken it upon himself to disregard his father'
s—
everything.

Corinth was walking through the distance of the green meadow toward The Well Read Walker, when something mysterious grabbed his right shoulder. "Ah!" Corinth jumped, screamed, and turned around in horror. His screech was so loud that even Walker pulled his head out of his book, and looked up to see the commotion. Luckily, for Corinth, the hand that firmly grasped his shoulder was only his dad's.

"You didn't exactly get permission to just walk away!" Criston had a rather annoyed looked about his face, as he hysterically gasped, trying to catch his breath. He sprinted after Corinth to intercept him before he reached Walker. He was still considerably tired and run down from all the events of the last week or so. He took his hand off Corint
h’
s shoulder, and then unpleasantly doubled over. Still very winded, though he only ran a few yards.