Part 3

Chapter 21

"Not-good-not-good-not-good-not-good-not-good!"

Flying across the thick mattress of snow, heavily-padded knees churned through it as they propelled the boy along before his feet even touched the dormant grass below. Clumsily hurtling over a boulder in his way, he took care not to damage the large object strapped to his back. Weaving through trees, trees, trees as their snow-layered branches began to blot out what little light there was from the overcast sky, he panted as the hulking figure right behind him gave chase, growing closer, closer.

Eddward Double-D found himself in quite the predicament. Not good indeed.

"I-I-I meant n-no d-d-disrespect!" he sputtered in an irrational attempt to reason with the thing behind him. "I-I w-w-was j-just pa-passing th-through!"

The figure giving chase took no heed. Its hooves pounded into the ground, flinging chunks of wet snow and clouds of dry powder into the air. Its antlers tore through any stray branches that got in its way as it pursued the boy, and its pale gray fur glistened whenever a small patch of sunlight streaked across it.

"What kind of caribou are you?!" Edd cried. He expected no answer as he weaved through the trees in an attempt to lose it, but he wouldn't be surprised it he actually got one.

After all, this was the third time this week that some animal had gone mad and tried to attack him.

"Alright, Double-D, think," Edd told himself. His destination was just up ahead, but his burning lungs and numb legs told him that he was reaching his limit. The caribou was catching up to him. Oh, if only he wasn't carrying such a heavy payload—oh no, absolutely not! It was much too important to even consider giving up. The elastic straps holding the enormous bundle chafed his shoulders even through the thick coat and layers of clothing underneath it, and it bobbed up and down on his back as the straps stretched and contracted.

Wait a minute, that's it!

With adrenaline pumping through his body, a plan formed in his head. After a quick scan of the area ahead of him, he immediately set it to action. Criss-crossing through the trees had bought him a little time, as the caribou insisted on following his path and lost speed trying to change direction so suddenly. Edd took the object off of his back and released the straps that were attached to the cloth bundling it up. He worked furiously, barely able to hear the monster approaching over the sound of his beating heart. When he was finally done, he took his position between two trees that were only a few feet apart.

"Hey! I take back that apology!" he shouted. "I did mean to disturb you! And I have absolutely no regrets about it whatsoever!"

Not the best of insults, he figured, but it was enough to cause the raging animal to head directly toward him.

Crouching down and planting his hands into the snow, Edd stood his ground, terrified, but confident. The beast got closer, closer, and right when it was just a few feet away, the boy thrust his hands up and jumped back. The caribou continued its charge at the boy, getting closer and closer as he scrambled back. Its charge lost speed, however. It began to slow down.

When the animal finally stopped, Edd could see its eyes grow wide as it looked up. Three elastic straps were caught on its antlers, tied to the two trees that were now a ways behind it. The caribou had just enough time to make a comical whimper before the straps reached their limit. They launched it backwards through the air like an enormous slingshot. It flew a ways before slamming into a tree head-first. Its antlers dug deep into the trunk.

The caribou stopped moving.

Part dazed, part horrified, but mostly exhausted, Edd gave an involuntary chuckle as he fell backward into the soft pillow of snow behind him. He quickly got back up, however, and walked over to the object he had cast aside. He picked it up—deciding to leave the strap-trap behind in case something else attacked him on his next journey—and awkwardly carried it up the large hill ahead.

Panting as he reached the top, he felt a bit of satisfaction as he walked over to a contraption in front of him. Pieces of cardboard, sheets of metal and various wooden boards were intricately attached to a refrigerator in a collage of Sticky Tape and screws and nails of all sizes, forming the shape of a makeshift airplane. Edd admired his handiwork for a while before he lay the bundle on the snow and unrolled it. Under the cloth was a large propeller, made out of light mahogany wood and as long as he was tall. It was hastily made, but it was aerodynamic enough.

"Thank goodness Grape Beck Academy has a woodshop class," the boy said to himself as he hoisted the propeller up onto the crude but sturdy snow blower motor at the front of the plane. Using a set of tools laying on a stump near the contraption, he carefully screwed the propeller firmly in place. He felt a pang of regret as he worked; he had never gotten the propeller graded, and it most certainly would have gotten him an A. But two whole days had passed since construction began, and he probably wouldn't have gotten it back if he turned it in anyway.

"Just one thing left," he sighed.

Back down the hill he went, tired but alert. He wanted to ask himself why he was doing this, but he already knew. What he really wanted to ask was why he was doing this despite what he already knew.

"D-Double D? Double-D!"

"Who's there?"

"Double-D!"

"E-Ed? Is that you?"

"We need your help!"

"Help? Who is 'we'?"

"Me and Kevin! He came and helped me find Sarah because she was kidnapped by a little girl and we found a pretty place but this guy attacked and Sarah got away but he used some weird PSI on us and we couldn't move and then he said something and we were asleep and—"

"Calm down, Ed! Where are you now?"

"I…I don't know."

"What do you mean?"

"We're in a cave. Somewhere. I think! We woke up here, and Kevin got angry and tried to blast us out, but nothing worked so he told me to try and concentrate to see if I could call for help with my PSI. It was hard at first, but then I suddenly felt something and it felt like you and then I grabbed onto it with my mind and we started talking!"

"P-PSI? What is PSI?"

"It's psychic powers Kevin and I got. Like… Like when he healed you! That was PSI Lifeup."

"And you're talking to me… in my sleep? With these powers?"

"Yup! Can you help us?"

"I-I—"

"I can't talk any longer! We need your help, Double-D!"

"Ed, wait!"

Edd had woken up before he could say anything else.

Under normal circumstances, the boy would've just considered the dream as some sort of manifestation of his homesickness. An attempt to rationalize Kevin's strange powers, and the immense regret of not being able to study them further, possibly compounded with the grief of losing Eddy. However, ever since then, he could not ignore what felt like, for lack of a better description, a "tug" on his consciousness. It seemed to pull on him toward the south, gentle yet omnipresent. He found himself unconsciously turning his head to look southward in class and he had to focus whenever he walked in a different direction or else he would get sidetracked. It was too strange and coincidental for him to ignore. Edd would've gone mad if he had and not done anything about it.

So he had decided to build a plane.

He pulled himself out of his thoughts as he saw the caribou near the base of the hill. It was smaller than before. Its gray fur had turned brown and its antlers were less menacing, though they were still stuck in the trunk of the tree. The animal was conscious now, and it struggled fruitlessly to get itself unstuck.

The boy sighed and mumbled under his breath at how stupid he was, but he cautiously approached the animal. It was too busy trying to free itself to notice him until he started pulling on its antlers himself, bracing his legs against the tree for support.

With a loud crack, the caribou was free. Edd quickly slid behind the tree in case it decided to attack, but it simply ran off, frightened.

"I wish I knew what was going on here," he sighed as he continued on. Maybe Kevin and Ed knew, he thought. Actually, that was a good point. Another reason for delving into this insanity, he figured, but a good one. The forest began to thin out as he made his way back toward the school, though the trees never went away entirely.

Grape Beck Academy was a large boarding school, built with crimson red bricks and surrounded by a large wall on all sides, making it look more like a prison than anything else. This served little obstacle to Edd, however, as he approached the wall near the front gate. Leaning up against it was a long, metal pole, a few feet taller than he was. He grabbed it with gloved hands and took a few steps back. Holding the pole over his shoulder, he broke into a sprint and ran as fast as he could toward the wall. With practiced motions, he thrust it into the ground and jumped. The boy's momentum carried him onward while the pole itself bent and subsequently straightened upward, rocketing him up with it.

With an "Oof!" and a shaky hustle for balanced footing, Edd landed squarely on top of the wall.

"My light stature is good for something at least," he chuckled to himself as he lifted the rod up with him. He walked along the top of the barricade for a bit, scanning the inside yard for a sizable pile of snow that he hadn't already jumped in before. When he found one, he kneeled down and carefully probed the pile with his pole. He did not want a repeat of "The Gas Meter Incident". When he found that there was nothing under the snow, he exhaled and jumped.

Edd felt his stomach rise up as his spine tingled from the fall in an odd mixture of excitement and fear. In an instant, the snow enveloped him up to his arms and the feeling vanished. Struggling a little, he managed to pull himself out of the bank, and he quickly ran to the entrance of the school after grabbing the pole to take with him.

The interior of the building was welcoming and warm, a stark contrast to the dark, snowy land of Grape Beck. The walls and floor were adorned with orange and brown, the school's colors, and the entrance opened up to a large central hallway that reached up three floors. The first two floors were dedicated for classrooms, but the third floor was where the student's quarters were, luckily for Edd. Also luckily for him was that the entire hall was empty.

He felt a little sick. He knew he was missing class, and his unexcused absences would tarnish his citizenship grade—well, tarnish it further, since the last time he decided to cut class under the persuasion of his friends, anyway. But something compelled him. Not just the southbound force that made it nigh impossible to concentrate anyway, but a smaller, deeper feeling was there.

He didn't hesitate as he made his way up the stairs.

Turning left and going back down the hall on the third floor, Edd made his way to his room. He counted the doors he had left to go: six doors, five doors, four—

"You there!"

Edd jumped and turned to see a smartly dressed lady standing on the other side of the hall, one floor down.

"What are you doing outside of class young man?" she snapped.

"I-I… Um…" Edd hadn't planned an excuse; hall monitors were rare in the school, he had quickly found out during his first few escapades outside. "I… need to get something from my room! I-I fo-forgot my… um, books! My books."

Even through her thick, pointed glasses, he could see the lady narrow her eyes as she scowled and said, "You are lying through your teeth. Come here this instant and report to the dean's office!"

"I-I'm afraid I a-am unable to do that!"

And he took off.

What am I doing? I can't run away, I might be suspended! Expelled! Deported! What will happen to my future? Will this follow me to college? Why am I doing this?! Thoughts swarmed through the boy's head as he grabbed the handle to his door just to keep him from flying past it. He could hear the loud claps of high heels on tile as the lady ran toward the stairs.

He flew into the the room, closing the door and locking it in one swift motion. He turned around and tried not to cringe. His room was in shambles, a panorama of systematically cut sheets and dismantled furniture. It was nearly painful to look at, but he put all that aside for the task on hand. First thing's first was the large backpack laying near the window. He put it on, grunting a little at the sudden weight of supplies and materials pressing down on him. Next was the key. The key. Where was it again?

"You open this door right now!"

He heard a furious knock on the door and then a faint jingle of keys. In a panic, Edd scrambled around the room. Where was that blasted key?!

"Where is it? Come on!" He tossed bedsheets and papers and bits of furniture left and right. A sudden glint caught his eye. He turned to the nightstand near the remains of his bed, the only piece of furniture that wasn't taken apart. On top of it was a small key.

"Of course," he sighed in frustration as he dove for the object. With a loud click, he knew he had to get out of the school.

"You have a lot of—Oh my goodness!"

The woman stood at the door. Edd stood in the middle of his trashed room, guilty as can be.

"I-I-I kn-know this looks bad, a-and I-I—"

"You have a lot of explaining to do, young man!" she scolded, taking slow, furious steps forward. "Come to the dean's office right now."

"I-I-I-I'm a-afraid I c-c-can't d-do th-that," he stuttered, stepping back for every step she took until he found himself pressed up against the window. He silently fumbled for the latch with his free hand, and thanked the contractor for installing windows that opened upward. He slid the pane behind him and maneuvered his pole outside the window just in time for the woman to see what he was doing. She gasped as he began to slip out of it himself, standing on the ledge for support. The ground lay stories below, dizzyingly, staggeringly below.

"W-what are you doing? Get back in here this instant!"

"I'm sorry, I really am," Edd said, "but this is something I must do. I've gone too far anyway—my school record is tarnished."

"We can talk to your counselor," she goaded, a tiny hint of worry betraying her otherwise fierce voice. "If you can explain yourself, we can work out a solution to whatever problem you're facing, but this isn't the answer!"

Edd froze on the window sill. What am I thinking? A dream. I did all of this because of a dream! Why on earth did I think it could be real?

The pull reminded him.

No, maybe it really isn't. I haven't read every book on psychology yet. There must be a rational explanation.

It remained steadfast.

The sound of a walkie-talkie transmission ending brought him back to reality for a moment, where he saw the woman lower the device from her ear.

"I've called the dean and the counselor over," she said. "We can help you."

Two men quickly filed into the room and gasped at mess on the floor and the boy in the window.

"What on earth is going on here?" the first one asked. "Get down from there!"

They approached him, ready to take him away by force. Cutting class. Stealing school supplies. Leaving campus. Mentally unstable. Suicidal. This was the end. This was the end of school as he knew it. There was no turning back. There was nothing to turn back to.

Edd jumped.

Time seemed to slow down. He quickly undid a small latch on the pole, activating the simple mechanisms he had built into it. An instant later, two bedsheets sprung forth from either side, forming the wings to a small glider. They caught wind and the flimsy material supporting them immediately buckled, but it was just enough to get Edd over the wall. He landed hard in a big pile of snow and ripped the broken wings off of the poll. He turned back to see the three adults look through the window. They stood still in shock for a moment before they quickly turned around and ran out of view.

As he made his way through the snow, he soon heard voices and footsteps behind him. After hearing a sudden "There he is!", he broke into a sprint.

Flying across the thick mattress of snow, heavily-padded knees churned through it as they propelled the boy along before his feet even touched the dormant grass below. Clumsily hurtling over a boulder in his way, he took care not to upset his large backpack filled with supplies. Weaving through trees, trees, trees as their snow-layered branches began to blot out what little light there was from the overcast sky, he panted as the mob of adults right behind him gave chase, growing closer, closer.

Edd ignored the sudden deja vu. He could hear a plethora of shouts and grunts behind him. Had they called the entire school staff after him?

Their shouts and footsteps grew closer very fast. He'd never make it at this rate. Edd steeled himself. He had made his choice. Suddenly, he saw something up ahead. He smiled.

There was no way he was turning back now.

The crowd of adults slowed their pace when they saw the child they were chasing after stop and turn to face them. Curiously, he put his hands in the snow and took a few steps back.

"I'm really sorry about this," he said, stopping. The mob of school staff walked up to him, exchanging confused glances as he continued, "Please know that this reflects in no way, shape, or form my thoughts or opinions of this school or the education system as a whole!"

The woman from before spoke up. "What are you—"

Edd pulled his arms out of the snow and let go of the straps he was holding on to. They cleanly smacked the front of the mob in the stomach, and thrust every single member backwards into the snow.

"This is the last of my shenanigans, I promise!"

Edd charged up the hill, dividing his attention with keeping his speed and making sure that he still had the small silver key in his hand. The crowd was soon after him again, as he could tell by the shouts and mumbles that were angrier than before. When he got to the airplane, he wasted no time as he got behind and pushed it towards the edge of the hill.

"What on earth?"

Edd didn't turn to look behind him as he hopped into the refrigerator and used the key to start the engine. The device had just enough momentum to continue on its makeshift wheels until it reached a steep slope ahead. It began to quickly pick up speed, leaving the adults behind.

His heart racing, the boy grabbed the handmade controls as the contraption sped up more and more. At the end of the hill was a large ramp made of snow. The plane ran over it. The sudden change in direction forced Edd to lurch forward. His makeshift safety belt held him fast. He felt his stomach rise as everything around him began to sink downward.

Eddward Double-D was flying.