Chapter 2: The Awakening
Waking up from the dream I had was surreal to me. As I lay there, it was hard to tell the difference between reality, and fiction. Was I still dreaming, or was I fully awake? I had no clue at the moment. I sat up, and looked over to see Alex still sleeping soundly on the other couch. Hmph...of course your asleep. damn what a weird dream. I gotta stop drinking tons of soda before bed...As I sat there I began to take notice of the after affects of the dream. I was sweating heavily from head to toe. It wasn't a regular sweat either, it was a cold sweat that seeped into my bones. I was also shaking uncontrolably, as if I had a high fever or something. I felt my forhead, just in case, but I seemed fine other than my current symptoms. Good lord! It was only a damn dream, but look at what its done to me. Man oh man, I need to calm down. I got up and went to the bathroom, hoping that it would give me a second to calm down. I stopped sweating, but I couldn't stop shaking because I was very cold. Something else was off, at first I couldn't put my finger on it, but something was definatley wrong...or right. hey...wait a minute, I'm not wearing my contacts or my glasses...yet I can see perfectly? What the hell? My eye site had gone from being severly nearsided, to being completley perfect. I could see things, that I could not normally see without my contacts or my glasses. But...how?That's not normal, not under any circumstances. What is going on here?
My shock would only grow as I made my next discovery, one that should have been very obvious to me, but at the time I was very groggy from my dream. Normally when I would go to sleep, I would sleep without a shirt on, so when I got up to wash my hands, I had almost fainted when I saw myself in the mirror. HOLY FUCK!!!! T-there is no way....I am...buff? I was having a bit of a peter parker to spider man moment, because when I looked at myself I was no longer pudgy or over weight, I was fit. Somehow my fat had dissolved and become soft toned muscle, though by no means was I ripped. It looked like I had been lifting weights for a year or so. o-ok...maybe this is still a dream...I-I will just go back to sleep now... with that I hopped back on the couch, and fell back asleep...this time I didn't dream.
I woke up again around a quarter to 3 in the afternoon. I was groggy again and all I wanted or cared about was the box of coco pebbles in Alex's cabinets. Alex was up already in the kitchen thinking the exact same thing.
Damion: *yawn* hey! poor me a bowl of those would ya!
Alex: Get off your ass and get your own fatty.
Damion: way to be a good host, ass *yawn*
I got up off the couch and headed for the kitchen to pour myself a bowl before Alex decided I shouldn't have any. I went up and stood next to him and grabbed a bowl, when I heard the sound of a bowl crashing onto the kitchen floor. I turned around to see Alex staring at me in extreme disbelief.
Damion: What the hell was that about?
Alex: W-what the hell is THAT about!?
I looked around, but saw nothing that seemed out of the ordinary. I looked back at him, and then I realized that he was pointing at me. I looked down at myself and immediatley went pale.
Damion: b-but I thought it was a dream. T-this just isn't possible!
Alex: What the fuck is going on? did you go out and get a lipo treatment while I was asleep!?
Damion: N-no I swear, I don't know how...
Alex: DUDE!!!! I AM NOT FUCKING STUPID! How the fuck do you expect me to believe that you just lost over 100 pounds by sleeping!? I can't believe you dude! How did you even get the money for your operation!?
At this point, I realized that no matter what I said, he would think that I went to the hospital in the middle of the night. I guess it was the only thing that seemed believable at the time. I did have to agree, people didn't just lose 100 pounds by sleeping...or at least, I didn't think so. So I did the only thing I could do...I went along with the flow of things.
Damion: ...your right...I am sorry...
Alex: Damn it Damion, you really should know better, I mean its not healthy to get that fat sucked outta you bro. Its just unnatural. How did you even get the fucking operation? Did you bring a fat stack of cash or what?
Damion: Look...this whole thing is quite embarassing, and I really don't wanna talk about it right now. I'm sorry about this, I won't abuse your trust again K?
I laugh at myself everytime I remember what I had said to him, cuz the truth is, in the future...I would do nothing but abuse his trust.
Later on, in the afternoon, it was time for me to leave and walk home, it seemed that I had over stayed my welcome. When I began to walk home from Alex's, I had decided to come up with some way to explain this to my parents. As I pondered what I would say, I struggled to keep my pants up and not sagging, which was really uncomfortable to do. Man...How do those ghetto guys do this all the time, this is rediculous...Hmm...what am I gunna say to my dad? He is not going to like this...I think...Man this is getting complicated. As I walked something else was nagging at the back of my mind. I didn't know why, but I had the strange feeling that I was being watched. I looked all around me, and could see nothing out of the ordinary. Why am I so edgy...other than the fact that I lost over 100 pounds in one night with no real explanation as to how. Ahhh...Why is that when something good happens to me, it gets twisted into something horrible!
Horrible was an understatement. When I got home, I had found out that Alex's parents had called mine to tell them that I had a liposuction surgery while everyone was asleep. I don't want to fully recall the whole argument because its long, boring and really only serves to annoy me, but I can tell you...My dad read me the riot act. After my dad was finished with his shouting, I was sentenced to my room to be grounded for the rest of the month. There really isn't much to tell about that seeing as the only thing I am aloud to do when I am grounded is read books. I think by the time summer came along, I had read through at least 10 to 15 books. Good thing I was an avid reader back then, other wise I might have gone insane, as if I hadn't been already.
Once my grounding was up, I was free to enjoy the rest of my summer vacation from school. there was alot to do for someone of my age who had just lost over 100 pounds and now could run freely without losing his breath after the first five seconds. The day my sentence was over, I sat in my room thinking of what I should do with my new amounts of free time. I also thought about explaining this to my other best friend, Kenny. He was a very opinionated person, and usually was over bearing when it came to controversial things, like getting fat sucked from your gut. As it turned out, I didn't have to explain it to anyone, because my dad had taken the liberty of telling everyone for me. Jerk...Its my buisness to tell, not his. Then again, it does save me the trouble of explaining it, and man oh man I really do not want to explain it. The next day I called Kenny up, to see if he wanted to hang out with me, or "chill" as I used to call it. He agreed and 1 hour later I was at his house ready to watch some futurama with him. Something was oddly different about Kenny, but I couldn't put my finger on it. His hair was as long as ever, and he wore his signature denim vest. After pondering for a moment, I realized what it was. Kenny had apparently also lost a little over 100 pounds, and looked very muscular. I had decided not to ask, mainly because with Kenny these things were most likley a trap.
It was July 28th , and it was a HOT, Summer day in Stockton. I usually prefer to be in the heat rather than freezing cold, but that day was too much, even for were just loafing around on his couch trying to cool down with some futurama on tv, though it wasn't doing us any good. In retro spect it might have been smart not to wear baggy jeans, and hoodies during the hot summer, but I was dead set on wearing what I wanted when I wanted back then, so tough for me. We were watching recordings of futurama on his tivo, when he told me something that shocked me proufoundly for the rest of the week...
Kenny: Hey Damion, I gotta tell you about this crazy dream I had a couple weeks ago. I swear it was crazy as hell.
Damion: O.k. go ahead
Kenny: alright. So in the dream I started out falling. I wasn't in the sky or anything, i was surrounded by complete darkness, yet I could see my self clearly. I was totally calm, and unconcerned with the fact that I was falling, right? and as I am falling, I am having these crazy thoughts about my life and the meaning of the world...
As I listened to his story, my gut clenched. His dream was starting to sound exactly like mine. Only his had different base thoughts, for instance in my dream, I was concerned more about how little my life was compared to the big picture. In Kenny's dream he was concerned with the meaning of what was around him, not just Earth, but the cosmos too...
Kenny: Then I started to walk up the glass stairs for what seemed like hours. I normally I wouldn't have walked up a pair of random glass stairs that appeared out of no where, but something in my gut told me it was ok. Then I arrived at another platform with my image on it, only this one was yellow rather than accuratley colored. On the platform wa-
Damion: was three podiums, one with a shield, one with a sword, and one with a staff, each bearing the crest of a golden crown...(I said this remembering my own dream)
Kenny: uh, yeah. How did you know?
Damion: OH!(I had lost myself in my own thoughts and didn't realize that I was speaking out loud) um...Lucky guess!
Kenny: ummm...ooookaaaay. (he shook his and looked wierded out) Anyway, I walked up to the podiums and the thoughts that weren't mine came back. They said you must choose your destiny and something along those lines, and it wanted me to wield one of the three artifacts. So, not even questioning why I was doing this, I walked up to the podium with the staff, and grabbed the staff. But when I did, it vanished, and I was attacked by these wierd shadow things! When they came at me a giant key flashed into my hands, and suddenly I knew what to do with it.
I started to swing it around and hit them, and it killed them...at least I think it did. Anyway once I realized that I had a good weapon that could defeat these would be attackers, I began letting all hell loose on them. Once that was over, another set of glass stairs appeared, and I continued onward...
It was becoming more and more apparent that these dreams were not regular dreams, because no one had the same dreams...simotaniously...on the same night, or at least not dreams that were almost exactly alike. I was beggining to question whether or not these dreams were more that just dreams, but instead visions. I wasn't sure. Then Kenny told me the end of the dream. This confused me a bit...
Kenny: Then I opened the door, TO FIND A FUCKIN GIANT ASS SHADOW MONSTER!!!! This thing was huge, and all I had was a giant key that slayed mini shadows! However, when I actually struck the giant monster with the key, it seemed to hurt it pretty badly. The battle was really tough, and painful, but I fought through. It summoned those weird shadow creatures to attack me while we were fighting, but I mowed them down with that key. Then I somehow could sense that the monster was done for, so I administered the final blow, and annialated him! After that I woke up an-
Damion: Wait. There wasn't any guy with a dark hood who was trying to stop you?
Kenny: ...no, why-
Damion: Well what about dark thorned vines, were there any of that?
Kenny: umm well no but-
Damion: Then you just defeated it? it didn't try to infuse its essence in you or something like that at all!?
Kenny: Damion, your freakin me out here man. Why the hell are you being so specific?
Damion:...
Kenny: DAMION!!!
Damion: ...Because I had that same dream, only mine had a different ending...
Kenny: wha?
Damion: I'm fucking serious man, I had almost the EXACT SAME fucking dream. The only things that were different, was that in mine, the platform had images of me on it. In the part with the podiums I picked the sword, and when I fought that giant monster a guy in a hooded cloak type thing attacked me and tried to stop me from beating the monster. The guy had me trapped, and it looked like I was gunna be killed, but I broke free at the last second, but not before having absorbed a huge portion of the monster.
Kenny: Are you makin fun of me right now dude, cuz I am being totally serious right now, and if your being an ass you can leave?
Damion: NO! I'm being fucking serious right now dude! I swear to you I had that dream, and I had that fucking giant ass key! I FOUGHT THAT FUCKING MONSTER!
Kenny: ALRIGHT ALRIGHT! calm the fuck down! And hey don't kuss so loud, my lil brother is in the other room.
Damion: I'm sorry. Its just this whole thing has been bugging me! Ever since that dream I have been feeling like im being watched. I really hate going to nelson park now because of this strange sense of forboding that I keep having, and latley, I have been thinking in a dark matter latley. Im so confused man.
Kenny: alright alright cool down bro. This is probably just a coincidence man.
Damion: No, its not. There is something really weird going on in the shadows man, and I need to find out what it is.
Kenny: I swear man, you have the most one tracked mind I have ever seen, just drop it, nothing is going on in the "shadows". Your just stressed out is all.
Damion: Whatever you say man, but this don't sit right with me.
Kenny and I both agreed to keep this little convo to ourselves, we didn't want people to think we were nut cases or something. Unfortunatley this whole thing had made me very edgy. For instance, every time I went within 200 feet of Nelson park, I could feel shivers run down my spine, and I would break out into a cold sweat. I hated it, it was a horrible feeling, and I often wondered why I felt this way. Man, I don't understand why I am so afraid of this park. This used to be my favorite hang out, but now, I feel like its a hiding place for a cereal killer...The next day went by, and I didn't end up going near Nelson park, but this time, I felt that something was really watching me, and I could feel my gut churn with fear. I looked around everywhere, but there was nothing but the occasional passing car, and the little lizards that crawl around on the back roads.
The beggining of my journey would not happen unitl a couple days later. It was very warm that fateful night, but not unbearably so. It was just Alex, Kenny, and me lounging around out at Nelson park, the place that caused me to have so many nightmares. For the past two days, I had been having terrible nightmares of dark creatures devouring me at nelson park. One of the nightmares I had, started out the same as my dream of the keyblade and the heartless, with me sitting on a bench in the rain feeling hatred for Alex. I could feel nothing else, until I caught a glimpse of a shadow beast stalking me from the playground at the park. Once I saw that horrible beast, I felt nothing other than fear. I tried to run away, but it caught up to me and pinned me down with its dark shadowy claws. Then it spoke to me in my head. You cannot run away from who you are human...you will one day embrace your destiny for the sake of all darkness, and you will be freed from your prison of ignorance...I tried to talk back saying "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!? WHO ARE YOU!? WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM MEEEEEE!? Unfortunately before I could get an answer I would wake up. Tonight, my nightmares were going to become a reality. We were just hanging out at our bench, but this time, I was really on edge. I was constantly looking back and forth, trying to see if anything was hiding in the shadows, or if I was being watched. I had deep chills running down my spine, and I was sweating cold bullets that felt like pure ice pouring out of my pours. Of course my friends were taking notice to my seemingly cowardly behavior, and they decided the best way to snap me out of was with some "friendly" insults.
Alex: Damion. Will you stop quivering like a little girl? My 5 year old sister is more manly than you.
Kenny: Yeah dude, your like a little panzy girl.
Damion: Will you two shut the Fuck up? Your not making me feel any better.
Alex: Oh waahh! will you stop crying?
Damion: fuck you ass wipe!
The night continued on like this till around the time of midnight. We were all staying over at Alex's, and his parents didn't care how late we were out as long as we kept in touch. However they appreciated it when we at least came back around 2 am. Then around one o' clock in the morning...
Alex: well lets go. I'm bored and Damion won't stop whining like a little bitch.
Kenny: alright. I'm bored too. When we get back lets play some Guitar Hero!
Alex: Sure, but I don't know if Damion is up for it, he is after all a little girl.
Damion: Oh fuck off...besides I would rather be playing guitar hero than continue to sit here in this really creepy...
Kenny: What's up?
Damion: ...It was nothin- THERE! LOOK!
I had seen something flash by under one of the street light. It was really fast, but I knew I had seen something. Unfortunately for me, neither Alex nor Kenny turned their heads in time to see what I was pointing at.
Kenny: Dude, your seriously super paranoid or something, man up.
Alex: seriously, you realize that if we were to be mugged, the three of us could handle ourselves. Hell people take one look at the three of us big guys and think "Oh shit, better not fuck with them"
Alex had a point. We had all changed very dramatically, though none of us mentioned it to each other, because it was just too wierd. We all some how managed to get into the best shape of our lives and truthfully if someone saw us, they really might think twice before attacking us.
Alex: C mon lets get back, I wanna talk to Tay for a bit anyway.
Kenny: Alex, you are so whipped
Damion: Dudes I swear I saw something over there by that light! it was there for a split second, but I know I saw it man!
Kenny: Dude, drop it, your freaking me out.
Damion: I am not fucking para- oh fuck it. Lets just get out of here please.
I then looked in the direction of the light one last time, but what I saw made me go a ghostly white.
Damion: K-K-Kenny...Lo-look o-over there!
Kenny could see that this was severly bugging me, and decided to humor me, too bad for him that this time he would see it.
Kenny: Umm, Alex, I think Damion did see something.
Alex: What!?
Kenny was now white as a sheet, and he was pointing a very shaky finger at the light post. Alex looked, and turned pale himself. What we were all looking at was not a robber, not a gangster, not a murder, but a heartless.
Alex,Damion&Kenny: A HEARTLESS!
None of us questioned how we all knew the shadow creatures identity, we were too frightened, and shocked by the reality that stood not 100 feet awayy from us. The dark entities from the depths of our darkest dreams had come to life, and its eyes were set on us.
Damion: HOLY FUCKIN SHIT!!!
I turned around and started sprinting, something I did not do very often for anything. It didn't take long for both Kenny and Alex to follow my example.
Kenny: Oh my God! Fucking SHIT RUN FOR THE HILLS!!!!
Alex: SHIT!!!
We started running away, towards the street. Unfortunatley for us, before we even had the chance to reach the middle of the park...we were surrounded...
Damion: Oh man, oh shit, oh fuck! were fucking screwed!!!!
Kenny: I-I don't understand, I thought it was a dream!
Alex: W-wait you guys had a dream about these guys
Kenny: you gotta be fucking with us right now alex you had the damn door dream!
Damion: CAN WE WORRY ABOUT THIS SHIT LATER PLEASE!
Alex: yeah...
Damion: oh man were fucked...
The heartless stood around just staring at us. There were many more than we had all seen in our dream, and we were praying to God that there wasn't going to be any giant heartless. From what I could tell at the time, there were a good 200 heartless surrounding us in the middle of the park, and of course there were no cars passing by to witness this mini army about to destroy a group of high school kids. Then waiting time was over, One heartless began charging us, and it was heading strait for Kenny. There was nothing any of us could do. The heartless then leaped mid stride, claws outstretched ready to rip apart my best friend. I was completly frozen, unable to help my friend in his time of need, unable to protect myself. I began saying silent prayers. Kenny crossed his arms over his face and braced himself. Then as the Heartless was upon him, a bright flash of white light blinded everyone. When the light cleared and we could all see again, Kenny was still there. And Kenny was holding the giant key known as the Key Blade. His blade was very similar to that of a shot gun barrel, with the cross hair at the tip representing the part of the key that unlocks doors.
Kenny: What the fuck!?
Damion: No way...
Alex:...
Damion: the dream is fucking real!!!!!!
Alex: NO SHIT!!! AS IF THESE HEARTLESS OR WHATEVER THEY ARE, AREN'T CLUE ENOUGH!!!!!
Kenny: Then that means...
Before Kenny could finish his sentence, two bright flashes of white light eminated from both mine and Alex's hands. Alex and me had somehow summoned our own keyblades, though at this point we weren't too surprised any more. Alex's key was very intricate. It was a shiny silver color and it was in the shape of a regular sword, except its mid section contained stained glass with different hues of gray and black. At the tip of Alex's keyblad was what appeared to be and upside-down heart with a cross at its bottom point. I didn't know what it meant at the time, nor did I care. I was too consumed with my own keyblade. I had seen it that dream with the giant heartless. It was the same long black blade wrapped loosly with a red scarf. At the tip however, was a different door opener. It was a black heart outlined in red, with an X in its core center. The X had thorns on it, and for some reason the symbol seemed to send deep chills down my spine, however at the time, I did not care, after all, we had a life or death battle to deal with.
We all split from our little triangle formation, and begun taking on our own sets of heartless blades swinging and slashing wildly. Unlike our dreams, we could not wield the Key Blades with grace, or style. We looked like complete novices, though technically we were, it didn't seem right. I came at a heartless slashing wildly with a downward stroke and then a side swipe, though these attacks showed a great deal of inexperience they seemed to be working. As I had cut the heartless with the side swipe, it vanished just like in the dream. I almost ended up getting myself killed because I decided to get cocky and attempt a front flip. I fumbled and fell forward, and was immediatley assaulted by the surrounding heartless. Their hands didn't actually cut my skin or cause bruises, in fact they fased right through me, but I could feel the pain all the same, as if they were striking my soul rather than my physical body. I then turned onto my back, despite the agonizing pain I felt and started to swing my Key blade around in a circle to make them back off. This maneuver made me notice the chain attatched to the hilt gaurd, and an idea came to me. I grabbed the chain and started swinging the blade around much like a larger version of the chained Kama. I swung around cautiously making sure I didn't hit myself...a very difficult task that I failed at a couple times...and hit several heartless causing them to dissappear. After several hours of wildly swinging and killing heartless, they were all gone, and we were completley drained.
Kenny: Was that all of them? *pant*
Damion: I don't *pant* know
Alex: We should start heading to my house, we might be safe there.
Damion: yeah...
We were all breathing hard as if we had busted a lung...apparently we weren't THAT in shape. Why...why did that happen? What is happening to us? These thoughts disturbed me deeply as we ran to Alex's. We were extremly wary of our surroundings, we stayed away from every shadow, and didn't stop once on the way back to Alex's. We weren't very talkative on our path. We were all breathing hard, and profoundly disturbed by our strange experience, not to mention we were afraid talking might alert any more heartless to our location, and then we would be in trouble, Key Blade or not. After what seemed like an eternity, we had arrived at Alex's where everything was completly normal and heartless free. We went up to Alex's room, and holed up in there. We set up bed but we barley slept the rest of the night, since we decided to keep all of the lights on. Not a single one of us talked, about anything, not the attack, not the key blades, not even the weather. We all just stared blankly at the television hoping that it would take us out of this life like nightmare. After about a half hour I spoke...
Damion: Guys...I am the last one who should be talking about this, but I think we all need to agree on something...
Both Kenny and Alex looked at me. I could see the deep rooted fear in their eyes, they were genuinely scared of what had just happened, and I didn't blame them.
Damion: I think we should all agree, not to say anything about this...I know its hard, but no one would believe us any way. We need to keep quiet about this, and from now on we need to keep close tabs on each other to make sure that nothing bad happens...k?
They didn't say anything, but they nodded in agreement. After that no more was said, and we finally let ourselves dive into slumber. We would not wake up till 4 pm, and how I got away with that, I have no idea. But at that time, we were finally asleep, and safe...for the time being...
...To be Continued...
