Chapters in The Eternal
Echoes
"What we do in life, echoes in eternity."
---
He walked down the crowded hallway, black hood hiding his face as his eyes peered out of it, like some malevolent predator, searching intently for its prey. The roar of countless conversations echoed throughout the heated atmosphere, but fell silent upon him. Music beat into his subconscious through his headphones, as he zoned out from everything around him. He continued to stalk forward, until his frame was suddenly jolted upright.
His head darted up, just in time to see a fist charging at him with the worst intentions. Slipping his head to the right, the punch slid harmlessly over his shoulder, and he sprung on his assailant. A sharp knee to the gut was followed by a ripping uppercut, and the person's body fell limply to the cold linoleum floor, blood flowing freely from their unconscious mouth.
The young man pulled the hood off of his head, revealing a surprisingly calm, unfaltering expression on his weathered face. He had scars around his eyes and forehead, indicating many a previous skirmish. His nose flared as he took a deep breath in, and pulled the headphones off his ears, letting them rest around his neck.
"Aight, mother fucker, get up." He called, ever-so calmly.
Everyone around had gone silent, shocked by the events unfolding before them. Everyone in the hallway waited in anxious anticipation for what was going to happen.
When the fallen adversary did not reply, the guy with the black hoodie only shook his head before squatting down, and pulling him to his feet, throwing him against a wall.
"Fuck was you thinkin'? Is you out your God-given mind? You havin' a lapse in your sanity, sucka? 'Cuz you can't be thinkin' straight if you fucking wit' me, feel me?" He exclaimed, clearly in disbelief that someone would attempt to challenge him.
"Ayo, get off my boy, Dante, before they have to scrape whats left ya off the floor, homeboy." Someone roared.
Dante spun around, releasing his grip on the man he had just assaulted.
"Q? Thought you dropped out, pussy. Well either way, you 'bout to get dropped, pussy." Dante smiled, eyes lighting up with a malicious glint in them.
Dante put his hands up, ready to go at it again, when people began pushing themselves through the crowd that had formed around the two enemies.
"What is going on here?!" Demanded a tall, heavy-set man, brow furrowed in anger at the scene in front of him. His eyes darted to the student on the floor, to the two standing, hands up, about to engage each other.
"Stop this, damnit! All of you, get to class, before I expel every last one of you, understand? To.Class.Now." He sternly roared, and the crowd around them began to disappate quickly.
"Mr. Fredericks, what exactly is going on here?" An older woman questioned, walking to the man who had broken up the crowd's side.
"Principal Briggs, I caught these two...hoodlums here about to go at it. When I got here, that young man was lying there in a heap, completely out of it. It's that boy Jameson - again. I think he just comes here so he can start trouble, no surprise though, considering where he comes from. The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree, does it boy?" Mr. Fredericks shot venomously at Dante.
"Fuck you talkin' 'bout you fat ass skeezer? I ain't start SHIT. Don't even know ol' dude. He bumped me, tried to rock off on me, and I just defended myself. Not my fuckin' fault he can't take a punch. Then this bitch-made pussy came up tryin' to start shit, when your fat ass showed up. Surprised you could make it through the crowd without busting a blood vessel or clogging an artery. Congratulations." Dante shot back, still smiling smugly.
Mr. Fredericks began to advance on Dante when Principal Briggs cut him off.
"Both of you, to my office. Mr. Fredericks, can you see to it that the young man on the floor over there gets the proper medical attention?" Fredericks went to contest, but she cut him off - "Thank you, Mr. Fredericks.
---
Two police officers entered the office where both Dante and Q were sitting, Principal Briggs between the two of them.
"These the two, ma'am?" One of them asked.
"Yes, I'm afraid so." She replied, through a deeply troubled frown.
The officers each went to one of the young men, told them to stand, and began reading them their rights. Neither of them protested as the cuffs were placed on their hands, and they were escorted out of the office, toward the patrol cars.
---
Right before exiting the building, a young lady jumped in front of Dante, tears rolling down her face.
"No no no, Dante. Not again...Why do you keep doing this to yourself? You are so much better than this, you know that. You've got to stop, before you don't have the opportunity to, you know? I guess...I'll let your mom know."
"You do that Aleesha." He said dryly, his head once again down, refusing to look her in the face.
---
Dante sat in a holding cell, back against the wall, eyes glaring at the grey floor beneath him.
Gonna have to deal with mom's bitching again... He thought to himself, shaking his head.
Almost on cue, a screeching voice penetrated the silence.
"I ain't surprised, boy. I am not surprised. Just like your dead-beat ass father. Just like him. No damn sense in that big ass head. You making me look bad, running around beating up on those kids at school. They ought to lock your ass up for good. You not doing any good out there, you know? Just fucking it up for other people - like me. Aleesha called me, crying, and I knew you done fucked up all over again. Well, come on. I posted your damn bail. But this is the last time, you understand me? The last time. You get yourself into this shit, high time you started getting yourself out."
Dante stood up as a guard unlocked his cell door, and he walked silently behind his mother out of the jail, as Q roared out from behind his bars:
"Don't think you out of harm's way. I got something for your ass. Something you never seen before, you feel me? That fire, for real. Won't be nothing left to bury when I'm done with you, that's my good word. Best watch yaself, fool."
Dante didn't respond, made no sign to show he even heard him, just kept walking, his head down, pulling his hood back over it, locking himself in his mind once again.
---
Lying down on his bed, his music blaring through his headphones once again, he began to fade into sleep, when a cracking sound, like the rumble of thunder, sent him upright, wide awake, and shocked to see his father standing before him. Even more shocking was the fact that his father had been dead for over ten years.
"Oh shit!" Dante belted out, mind denying what his eyes were seeing. "You can't be you...you...you died..."
His father didn't move, but spoke in a soft, calming tone, "I'm as real as you are, just in a different way. But I'm not here to talk about that. I'm here to offer you a chance, Dante. A chance to become something, to change your life. I know that you don't wanna be like this, I just know it. And you have the choice to change it or not. I know you don't want to hurt your mother, or the few people that you have that are close to you. So, I come here offering you a fresh start, a way to repay your debt, to set things back on the course they should be."
Dante said nothing in rebuttle, still in awe over the sight before him.
"I don't want you to end up like I did, Dante. I want the best for you. Always did, whether you knew it or not. You have the heart of a lion, but a few mitigating circumstances sent you down a path you didn't need to follow. Well, I'm offering a chance for you to get back on the right path. A chance at redemption."
"Sounds too good to be true. And I know that if something sounds too good to be true, you're about to get stabbed in the fuckin' back. So what's the catch?" Dante questioned, nose flaring with scepticism.
"I never said it would be easy, or painless. But I can promise you that in the end, it will be worth it, son. I'm offering you the chance to break the cycle, to make a difference. What we do in life, echoes in eternity."
"What I gotta do?"
"Something you've always liked, and always been good at - fight. But not the thug down the block, or the guy mean-mugging you at school. Something on a much, much bigger scale. But all of that will be revealed in time, I just need an answer from you son, yes or no?"
"I'm fuckin' hallucinating. You can't be real. I'm dreaming. Fuck this. I gotta wake up...stop fuckin' trippin'." Dante told himself, rubbing his eyes.
"Yes, or no?"
"..."
"Yes, or no, Dante. That is all I ask."
"...Aight..."
As soon as the word escaped Dante's mouth, his father walked to him, and placed his hand upon his arm. Pain resonated through his body as a searing hot burning sensation shot through his arm.
"Aghhh!" He bellowed in obvious discomfort.
When his father removed his hand, a large, detailed tattoo had formed on Dante's left arm. A lion, with symbols and designs adorning and surrounding it, in the deepest of black ink.
"You have the heart of a lion, son. Use it..."
---
Dante's head snapped up, sweat beading down his forehead, breathing quick and shallow, shaken from the dream he had just awoken from. He looked around, searching for his father, who was nowhere to be found.
"Damn, I'm trippin'" He said, putting his face in his hands.
Walking to the bathroom, he flipped the light on, turned on the faucet, and threw water on his face, shaking his head. Slowly looking up, his jaw dropped as he peered into the mirror.
There, going down his left arm, was a majestic tattoo that wasn't there when he had fallen asleep. A tattoo of a lion.
He ran his shaking, unsteady hand up his arm in horror as the words reverberated through his mind...
What we do in life...echoes in eternity.