"Justin, I don't know why you have to endure this," his best and only friend Michelle scolded as they walked home together later that day, "One of these days, you just going to have to make a fist and deck the jerks for harassing you. Make a stand for yourself!" Justin laughed hollowly.
"Yeah, and if I do that, you can start helping my family make funeral arrangements. Besides, if you think about it, I've always been tormented since the sixth grade, so if I try getting back at everyone who's made my life miserable, I'd probably wipe out more than half the high school population, not to mention my father." Michelle nodded grimly. She knew Justin since the sixth grade, seen how kids laughed at his geeky appearance, his shabby clothes, his lack of physical strength. She too, was tormented and cast aside as a social outcast, but she was never noticed by anyone so her harassment was much, much less of severity than Justin. Plus, she also knew that unlike her, Justin came from a broken family. Justin's parents divorced when he was nine, and his gentle mother took his sister away to live in another state to escape the impossible behavior of his father. Justin's father mistreated his wife with his authoritarian dictatorship of the house, and when his wife left, he started bullying Justin even more. Sometimes, it even got physical, but Justin always lied and told anyone who cared to notice that he bumped into a doorway or fell down. Yet, Michelle could always see through it, see the years of berating and put-downs from his father and his classmates, see the years of hurt and loneliness, see the years of never having affirmation or praise or a feeling of importance; it was taking a toll on Justin. Justin shrugged easily enough.
"Besides," he continued, "it's our senior year in high school, and soon, I can go live with my mom and go to the local college, I'll have free room and board, and I can stay out of my father's way."
"But what about your book? I know it's your favorite. After all, it's not every day you have someone who has an obsession with 'Watership Down'." She chuckled at this last statement; though it was a little weird, she knew and understood that Justin loved the stories of the novel, the tales of the brave, outcast rabbits journeying through danger just to find a place to live as a family, and how Justin fell in love with the cartoon movie when he was five. Then she noticed that Justin was wearing a silver cross over his red flannel shirt.
"Hey! That's a beautiful cross!! Where'd you get it?" Justin looked at her in surprise at the sudden change in subject, but his eyes warmed up when he looked at the piece of jewelry.
"I bought it in a swap market when I got back from church," he replied, "Remember how I became Christian two months ago? Well, I wanted to have a cross, but the ones in department stores were always too expensive. But when I went to the swap meet, I ran into this booth selling jewelry and the guy there sold me the cross for two dollars!" Michelle frowned at that last statement. Justin, noticing the look, asked, "What? What did I say?"
"Justin, he sold it to you for only two dollars? That seems a little suspicious. Ordinarily, I wouldn't question it if the jewelry was costume or fake, but the cross you have on doesn't look like it's made from ordinary metal. Where was this swap meet? I know you don't have a car, so you can't drive anywhere out of town to go the swap meets they have in downtown L.A."
"It was really close by. It was next to that empty lot next to my church, the one next to the highway." Michelle frowned even more.
"Justin, I drive out to visit my relatives every Sunday, and I pass by your church on the way there. I never saw any swap meet in that empty lot. Heck, that place has been desolate for years, except for the rabbits I see over there, feeding on the grass." Justin hesitated at this statement, deep in thought. No, it was there, he remembered. He saw the swap meet himself, the individual tents and kiosks bantering their goods for selling. Yet…there was something odd about it. There were no other people in the swap meet, and Justin almost felt completely isolated if it wasn't for the sight of rabbits running around everywhere on the dusty ground. Even the man who sold him the cross was a bit peculiar. When he saw Justin approaching, his face lit up and he treated Justin with revered respect, as if he was the President's son or something. In fact, he seemed really eager to sell Justin the cross; he even offered to give it to Justin for free as a reward for being his first customer. Justin, slightly flattered, gave the man two dollars for fair payment. As he put on the cross, the man kept talking jovially to him.
"Ya' lad, ya've made a foine choice with that there cross there, dontcha' know. It'sa made froim the fineist Lapine metal."
"Lapine metal?" echoed Justin as he finished fastening the cross around his neck. "What on earth is that?" He couldn't help but like the enthusiastic seller, but there was something about his accent that sounded eerily familiar, as if he had heard the dialect somewhere before. And for some reason, his mind was nagging at the word "Lapine".
"Oi, dontcha know anything, lad?! Lapine metal, ois it's a foine metal, rarer around these here parts, and this un's made completely of it! Back in olden days, Lapine metal's bin rumored to have magick powers, dontcha' know!"
"Umm…sure." Justin replied, not sure what to say to that fairy-tale, but he smiled back at the nice man. "Thanks so much for helping me!"
"Oi, lad, an' Oi'm glad ya found whatch'er been lookin' for." As Justin was about to leave the swap market with his new purchase, the merchant called out, "Mai' Frith protect cha' for the journey, cross-bearer!" Justin nearly stumbled on the dirt before he turned slowly back at the man, his eyes wide with confusion and his ears ringing, not sure what he had just heard.
"Wha…What did you say??" he asked, but the man just smiled and waved him away as Justin walked back home.
"See you later, Justin!" Michelle called. Justin snapped out of his flashback, shaking off the nagging feelings he just recalled from the incident. He saw that they were at Michelle's house, and here, the needed to part their ways. Justin waved goodbye as he continued on the path to his house. It was a beautiful day with the warm spring sun shining on the trees and the green grass. Yet after a few blocks, Justin stopped. He saw he was at the church where he went to every Sunday, and next to the church was the empty, bare plot of grassy land. The same area where Justin bought his cross from the vendor. Justin walked slowly until he came up to the abandoned lot and looked around. There wasn't anything except grass, weeds, dandelions, and primroses. Nothing, not even a rabbit, appeared on the plot of land, and Justin heard nothing but the sounds of cars rushing by on the freeway to avoid rush hour traffic. Justin laughed to himself as he shook his head. He was being paranoid over nothing. The seller, though kind, was obviously eccentric. He was about to start walking away when he heard a voice gently call to him.
"Cross-bearer…Cross-bearer…help El-ahrairah…help Watership Down…help save the world beyond life." The voice was gentle, non-threatening, and very faint, as if it was floating on the wind, but the words chilled Justin to the very bone as he whirled around in fright, trying to see if it was someone playing a joke on him. Yet, no one was on the empty lot.
"H…Hello??" Justin called out nervously, not sure if he was hearing things. "Did…did someone call me??" No one answered back, and Justin absentmindedly stepped into the barren lot, his foot touching the dirt, grass, and primroses. Instantaneously, his cross burst out into a flash of white light, causing Justin to yell in fright as he dropped his books and backpack. In the next moment, a ray of golden sunlight shot straight out from the sky and enveloped the teenager in a pillar of light. Justin, thoroughly frightened, tried to step back, but before he could do anything, he felt himself being jerked into the sky with amazing speed before he lost consciousness. In the next moment, the light disappeared and if anyone was passing by at that moment, they would have only seen an empty, weedy plot of land and nearby, curiously enough, an abandoned backpack and a set of textbooks.