Alex blinked rapidly in the morning sunlight streaming through his bedroom window. It was just about seven-thirty; time to head out to school. He threw the covers off, jumping out of bed. He went to his dresser before realizing he had slept in his mowing clothes. When he had come home last night, he was just tired. He didn't even want any dinner, much to Mom's dismay. He just wanted to plop down in bed and go to sleep. And he did exactly that.
But why had yesterday been so tiring? His stomach dropped as it suddenly all came back to him: the visit from the portly guy, the so-called Nest, the mark on his chest. At this thought, he immediately ripped off his t-shirt to look for the heart symbol. It wasn't there. He scoffed at himself. Why had he even been expecting to actually see the red-lined heart? He already knew it was all just a dream. He was being stupid. Getting in his own head.
Shaking his head at himself, he opened his top dresser drawer and grabbed a red sports t-shirt. Throwing it on, he quickly changed the rest of his clothes without precise selection and headed out his bedroom door.
Downstairs, his mother was already awake and making breakfast for him. Every day before school, unless she was sick, she always made sure to have breakfast ready for him, and every morning he was grateful. She had done the same for his older sister and brother when they were still in school, and she hadn't failed him yet either. Of course, he was the only kid in the house now, his twenty-five-year-old brother now living out in Pennsylvania and his twenty-one-year-old sister having gotten married a year ago and moving out to the eastern part of the state.
He sat down at the table with a quick "Thanks, Mom" and gobbled up his eggs and toast. Why did he feel nervous? Why was his heart beating at an above-average BPM? Come on, dude! he inwardly yelled at himself. It was a dream! Stop thinking otherwise!
Jane Lyra, Alex's mother, was a slim woman on the taller side with brown hair usually tied up in a pony tail. She was a woman of taste, always dressed well whether in public or not. Right now, she wore a blue summer dress with a golden necklace around her neck. With a calm, collected aura and hazel eyes that radiated the same message, it was easy to see where Alex got his chill nature. Of course, however, he also had the fighting drive and stubbornness that came from his father, Terrence Lyra. Between the two parents, Alex had always thought he got the best of both worlds in terms of personality.
Noticing the constant tensing of shoulders and clenching of the jaw as Alex resolutely ate his eggs, Jane raised an eyebrow at him as she turned to place a pan in the sink. "You look mighty determined today, Alex."
Just then, Terrence came running down the stairs. He was a hefty man of average height for a man but about as tall as his wife. With a clean-shaven face and dark brown eyes, he possessed a voice that was loud and intimidatingly strong. Which fit his job as a lawyer perfectly, for it added a lot to his ability of being able to move the opinion of a jury.
With purpose in his step, he called out as he passed the dining table, "Well, of course, because he's a man with a mission, Jane! He's got things to do and people to see. He has to be determined all the time, now!"
Jane chuckled lightly at this, but Alex made no reply. Terrence made his way to the coat rack by the front door, snatching the black fedora he always liked to wear from off one of the hinges. Placing it smartly on his head, he turned to face his family. "Well, I'm off! Office wants to see me bright and early today, I've got a few interesting cases."
"Goodbye, dear," replied his mother. "Drive safe."
"See ya, Dad," said Alex distractedly.
When the front door had been closed, Jane made her way over to Alex and sat in the chair beside him. Folding her hands on the table in front of her, she looked worriedly at her son. "Alex, what's going on? You've been really tense since you got back home yesterday. You didn't eat dinner, and you went to bed really early. Did something happen at school?"
Alex shook his head. Knowing he wasn't ever going to try to explain to her what he had just experienced, dream or not, he came up with something really quickly as he finished his meal and got up to put his plate in the sink. "I'm ok, Mom. I…I guess I just realized I want to do more in life than mow lawns. So I'm going to make sure to study real hard in class today so I don't have to get stuck mowing lawns my whole life."
He grabbed his backpack from where it was lying by the stairs, and put the strap around his shoulder. His mother didn't seem super convinced, but she stood up and nodded. "Ok, Alex. Yes, make sure you do well in school today."
He nodded and walked past her without looking her in the eye. As he passed, she made sure to stop him by the arm and give him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Goodbye!"
"Bye." Quickly, he walked out the door and headed for school.
When the bell went off for lunch, Alex quickly got up from his desk and headed down the hall toward the cafeteria. With his hands in his jean pockets, he walked with his head bowed toward the ground. All day, in class, he had been given lots of time to think about what happened yesterday. He decided it was real, after all, because he wanted to go with his gut feel. And his gut feel told him that it was not a dream in any way, shape or form. It was as real as the ground underneath his feet. But Saint Farnon had said he would see him again, and he hadn't seen him again yet, so that was weird.
His thoughts were interrupted as he realized someone had been walking directly behind him. He raised his head slightly and pointed his eyes to the side to catch a glimpse of who it was. The dark-skinned hand hanging loosely out of the contour jeans gave it away immediately: it was Dahlia Tanklin.
Alex's heart jumped and he riveted his eyes in front of him again. He had completely forgotten that Dahlia was supposedly his Carmator, the one who was destined to be his girl. It sounded so ridiculous, but why was she following him now?
Always dressing fashionable, Dahlia Tanklin was a very attractive Spano-African girl dressed in light blue contour jeans with a loosely-fitting emerald green blouse hanging off her shoulders, which brough her piercing, dark green eyes. Sporting black and white Converse shoes with a golden ankle bracelet, she had long, raven black hair and great confidence in her step. Despite all her looks and good fashion sense, however, like Alex, she had never exactly had guys tripping over themselves trying to get her. She was popular enough amongst the other girls, but boys at school just never seemed to be very interested.
As he thought more about this, the more he realized it did in fact add up with how he himself had been his entire life. It would make sense that the reason for this was that they both were destined Carmators, only ever able to be attracted to one another. But then again, they had never exactly been very attracted to one another either.
Like a robot, Alex walked forward and got in the lunch line. His heart beat fast as he wondered if Dahlia really had been visited by her own Caller, and that's why she was sticking so close to him. He chanced a look behind him and saw Dahlia casually leaning on one hip. He shook his head at himself slightly as he realized she probably wasn't even paying attention to him. He was going to go crazy if he kept doing this. He was being so stupid, living in fear.
Angry with himself, he got his lunch and took a seat at a table at the far end of the cafeteria. He breathed a huge sigh as he stared at his plate of fried chicken and potato wedges. At least the school had a good meal today. Unfortunately, he just wasn't hungry right now. That whole Carmators thing was really messing with his mind. He kept going back and forth, juggling the decision of whether or not he actually believed it.
He was so deep in thought that he didn't notice someone sauntering up to the table. He almost jumped when he saw the food tray clatter down directly to his left. Startled, he snapped his head around to see who it was, and he inhaled sharply when he saw who it was: Dahlia.
She smiled as she sat down directly next to him. "What? Scared to see me?"
Alex swallowed and regained his composure as his eyes hardened. "Why would I be?"
She nudged him, the smile widening. "Mhm, like you don't know."
His adrenaline pumped faster. "I'm not sure if I do," he replied hesitantly.
Her smile only grew bigger. "Yes you do, Carmator. I got my visit from my Caller, and you did too. Don't act dumb on me."
He blinked. "Yes, of course."
She raised an eyebrow. "You don't look convinced."
Alex looked around confidentially before leaning in to talk to her in a whisper. "Wait, so you're being for real? This isn't some stupid prank or anything?"
She shrugged. "If it is, then we're both getting pranked. I believe really easily, though. I always did wonder why no guy ever was attracted to me." She gestured to herself with a smirk. "I mean, like, it can't be that this is ugly, so I always knew it had to be something else." She paused to look him up and down. "At least the guy I got isn't bad looking."
Alex rubbed his forehead wearily with two fingers. Scoffing, he said, "Thanks, I guess. I can't believe we're actually living in a TV show. I don't understand any of this at all."
She shrugged and began eating her lunch. "Hey, me neither. That's why we're going to get a second visit from our Callers later today."
Curious, Alex asked, "Who was your Caller?"
"Saint Yvonne Tao. I remember the name because it was so unique. She was an Asian chick, but sounded just like an American. Just by her voice, I never would've guessed she was Asian. She was super nice, told me lots of stuff and said she could see great belief in me which was going to make things easier for her." She pushed her hair back behind her shoulder as she added mockingly, "She also said the girls are usually quicker to believe than the guys."
"Yeah," Alex agreed quickly, "Because you guys are so immature; your minds aren't ever in the real world to start with, so it's easy to accept fantasies."
She grinned. "Mhm, for sure. Because fantasy is the only way for us to escape from how annoying the guys are."
He nodded. "No, because I said you guys are disconnected from reality 'to start with'. So us being annoying is all part of the fantasy."
She laughed lightly, shaking her head. "Look, we're fighting so much already!" She nudged him slyly. "Just like husband and wife, eh?"
Alex didn't find it funny. "Yeah, sounds like a nightmare if I'm being honest. So what do we do next?"
Dahlia shrugged. "I dunno. I was thinking you might have an idea."
Alex folded his hands in front of him as he looked around at the loud cafeteria, filled with kids of all high school ages. None of them really seemed to notice the two of them all the way at the back, except for a group of girls who kept looking over and winking at "Dolly", as they had nicknamed their friend Dahlia.
Ignoring them, Alex replied to her. "Listen, I do have an idea. Later, when we're supposed to meet our Callers again, let's both confront them at the same time."
Dahlia pursed her lips skeptically. "Confront them? Sounds aggressive. We're not out here to fight them, you know. As far as I'm aware, we're on their side."
Alex held up two fingers. "First, no, I'm not saying 'fight' them. These are supernatural beings we're talking about here. Fighting them is the last thing I wanna do. Second, also no, we're not sure about being on their side. We're just going with what they've told us. Why should we trust them?"
She rocked her head from side to side as she thought about this. "I guess because they haven't killed us yet? In this world, sometimes you gotta take a leap of faith and trust people, Alex." He was about to respond, when she held up a finger quickly, placing it just inches from his eyes. "Also, you said they're supernatural beings. Remember, we are too, bub."
Slowly, he grabbed her hand and moved it away from his face. "Don't do that. And again, how do we know that? Sure, that's what we've been told, but what if these are just Satanic cult creeps who need to use us as sacrifices?"
She laughed. "Then they would've killed us yesterday, silly! Why wait another day to do it when they already had us?"
"I don't know, who knows why any cult freaks do what they do. But seriously, I think we should meet up after school so we can catch both our Callers at the same time."
She sighed, twirling her black hair with a finger. "Fine. I don't know why, though." She stopped twirling her hair to direct a mischievous grin at him. "Or…you're just using this as an excuse to take me out. Where do you want to meet up?"
Alex ran his fingers through his hair in frustration, but decided to ignore her little comment about taking her out. "Becky's Shoppe, the old one just around the corner. I'll tell my parents that I'm hanging out with some of the guys after school."
She narrowed her eyes as she thought about this. "Hm, that doesn't seem like a super romantic place to go. I guess it works, though. Alright, I'll be there."
He was about to respond when she placed a hand to his mouth. "Shush, Nick's making his way toward us. We don't want to seem like we're insane, so let's wait 'til later talk about this, ok?"
Alex wrenched her hand off his mouth, glaring at her. "Yeah, let's."
She ignored his glare and waved at Nick Bolstrum as he approached. Nick was a good friend of Alex, and they also happened to be neighbors. The kid was naturally stocky and heavyset, the kind of guy you didn't want to get into a wrestling match with. He had short brown hair and squinty brown eyes, with thick, meaty hands that placed down a food tray on the table in front of the seat directly across from Alex.
"Hey, Nick," said Alex.
"Hey, Alex," Nick said hesitantly as he eyed Dahlia sitting right next to Alex. He sat down in his chair slowly, still looking back and forth between them. "So uh," he began cautiously, "Are you two a thing now?"
Alex laughed in a short bark. "Hah, no. Our parents are just, uh, working on the same case right now so we thought it'd be fun to talk about."
Dahlia smirked as she gestured toward her group of friends which were still giggling and winking at her from another table. "My friends don't seem to think so." She winked back at them and mouthed, "I got him!"
Alex slapped a hand to his face. "What are you doing, Dahlia?"
She patted him on the shoulder as she grabbed her tray to get up. "Doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. And it's Dolly, by the way; my best friends call me that, and I think you now qualify. Bye!"
With that, she headed off to join her friends at the other table. Wide-eyed, Nick chuckled nervously. "Uh, ok, what just happened?"
Alex sighed heavily. "A girl who thinks she gets to choose who her boyfriend is, whether he agrees or not, just decided to single me out as her next victim. That's what happened."
More at ease now, Nick started eating while still chuckling. "That's hilarious. Hey, why not take her though? As far as I'm concerned, she's a total baddie. I'd take her in a second flat."
Alex shook his head pityingly. "Because girls like that are just players, Nick. That's why. They're not really interested in you, but rather, what they can get from you. She'll break your heart before you can say 'love.'"
With a mouthful of food, Nick nodded dramatically. He swallowed hugely before responding. "Wow. That's deep. Still not convinced, though. I think you should take her offer."
"Offer?" Alex repeated incredulously. "She didn't even offer! She demanded!"
Nick shrugged. "Ok, sure, and what about it? She's still a total catch."
Alex just sighed again. "Whatever, I don't care, honestly. She's gonna do what she's gonna do. I'll just make my own decisions."
"Suit yourself. Help out a friend and tell her to try me next, though, if you really are going to turn her down."
About the Author
Elazar J. Fredenburg is an eighteen-year-old author from the Bay Area, California. If he's not shooting hoops with the guys, making a point-and-click puzzle video game, or writing new compositions on the piano, he's probably at his desk writing the next installment of his latest book series. Writing all sorts of novels in genres ranging from grand fantasy to sci-fi to romance, Elazar just enjoys writing, and enjoys giving other people the pleasure of reading his writings. If he can put a smile on your face from a character's joke, get your heart beating as the protagonist chases down the antagonist in a deadly dangerous pursuit, or bring tears to your eyes from the heroic death of a noble character, then he's satisfied enough. Elazar writes to move audiences and perhaps inspire them to create their own worlds in which they can mold characters, nurture plotlines, and write something worthy of being passed on to the next generation.
He currently works on his web novel, Carmators, which can be found on WebNovel and other online writing platforms. The biggest endeavor he's had in the genre of romance, he's excited to hear what readers think of it and hopefully publish many more seasons in the future.
Elazar can be found on both his subreddit and discord server, where he daily engages with readers and turns an ear to any feedback or critique they might have. Feel free to join now and tell Elazar what you think of his work!
Discord: discord.gg/JJg2pgvmaN
Subreddit: www.reddit.com/r/EJFBooks/