Phantasmagoria

Chapter 2

The Media

A cannot count how many time I have called the news stations this week. The news keeps trying to twist my story either making me more heroic or villainous then I was, or for that matter the girl with the white hair with gold and red streaks running through it. All the news stations except for FOX are making her out to be a villain. Then you have the politics and the gun control people. eesh! Lets just not go there.

Then there is info I got out of the police. It’s scary, they know that it’s a 9.28 X 42, but it did damage consistent to a 12.25 X 72 round. The only thing that was consistent was the penetration. Never the less, things are rough, my brothers and sister were all worried about me, school was canceled for the rest of the week and my friends are a little shaken up.

I am excited for tonight, my friends and I are going to that new restaurant, hopefully this Monday night. Hopefully we can put last Monday behind us once and for all.

I pull into my parking space and turn off my 1977 Dodge Challenger. I took off my seat belt and sat there for a minute and admired the worn black interior before stepping out. I walked over to the doors where 3 of my friends were already waiting. We had 2 more coming. So we waited outside making pleasant small talk.

As the last of us showed up, we headed in and started ordering. I ordered a Cheeseburger combo and filled up my cup with Dr. Pepper.

The restaurant’s layout is simple. The counter where you order was at the front, the soda machine to the left of that, and to the right was a hallway that lead to the bathroom. There were 3 exits, one to the left of the soda machine, one straight across to the right counter, and one to the front right side. The tables were laid out in 4 straight rows in front of (the) counter, and 3 across to the right counter, and one to the front right side. Me and my friends pulled the middle 2 together and sat down while waiting for our meals.

They brought our meals out to us, our conversations continued until I said, “Guys, we need to talk about Monday.” Everyone went silent

“What about it?” Victor asked in a questioning tone.

“Those 3 guys were there for a reason.” I said

“So was that girl.” Pileup said

“What are you trying to say Sky Stroke?” Branden said in a stern tone.

“Those 3 guys could have just started mowing everyone down, but they didn't.” I said

“Maybe they just wanted to see their victims bef-…” Victor was saying when I cut him off.

“If that was the case, then why did he stop looking over the crowd when he saw the 4 of us?” Gesturing towards the 3 others who were beside me when the shooting happened. Stunned Silence.

“Because they were looking for someone” I said

“Or something.” Jim said.

“No, because when he looked in our direction, he started lowering his gun. He had found whoever he was looking for.” I said. A girl had walked in before I had finished. She is wearing a trench coat and her left sleeve seemed to have something under it which glowed green under it. She walked over and slipped a folded piece of paper in front of me and continued to the counter. The fabric on the left side isn't flowing right.

“Who was that?” Wedge asked

“I don’t know” I answered as I unfolded the paper. The paper said. “When you finish reading this, duck.  5.46 With Tax. I ducked and I heard a bullet shatter glass and fly over my head. I pulled my head up and looked over at the girl who gave me the note as she drew a revolver. The revolver is a 45 magnum with a scope and pearl handle. I jumped up and ran to the nearest empty table as the next round shattered the glass and whizzed by my head. BLAM! That little pistol rang out. In the distance the sound of metal hitting concrete followed by Sirens.

“You!” she said pointing a finger at me will lowering the revolver “come with me!”

“Why?” I responded

“Because there are more coming, and I would prefer not to be here when they show up.”

“I can’t just flee from the scene of the crime!” The police car sounded, like it’s only a block away when a roaring machine gun opened fire.

                    “WE NEED TO GO NOW!” she said. She raised her revolver toward the nose of the machine gun as the sirens die off. I started running to my car and right as I stepped out the window, I saw the truck with the machine gun to my left up the street a little ways.

The truck has a ram bar off road suspension 50 caliber machine gun and a man. BLAM! Who was manning it a second ago… But, instead decided to fall out the back. I finish my sprint to the car, unlocked it, opened the door, get in my car, close the door. BLAM! Unlock passenger door, keys in ignition, start car as passenger door opens, slam the car in reverse as passenger gets in, I hit the gas as (the) passenger door closes. I swing the front of the car to the left, then 1st gear forward left to go through parking lot exit, right to go down the street away from the truck.

I check my rear view mirror, there happened to be a van between us and the truck. I had turned my head to the right to start asking her questions as we went through the intersection. She was looking over her left shoulder, looking out the rear window. Went I said “50 cal. Truck, 4 o’clock.” She had already opened the passenger side window. I looked to the rear view mirror right as the van got hit. The van spun out into oncoming traffic.

The first truck is now in plain view. There’s a bullet hole in the front window on the passenger side. The driver of the truck looked mad and BLAM! Was trying to catch up but instead was going slightly right. I checked the road then back to the rear-view mirror the 2nd truck is 50% clear of the other truck. BLAM! The 50 caliber machine gunner was going to engage, but instead, he decided to swing the gun let and up while falling in to the bed of the truck.

The man in the passenger seat unbuckled his seat belt. BLAM! And moved no more. CLICK! The revolver was out. I had made it into the 5th gear, so there was no way that truck was going to catch my black Dodge Challenger with blue racing stripes, But it didn't stop him from trying. The girl tossed the revolver on the dash, and pull out a non-scoped one with a black handle. I know who she is.

On the pearl handle of the scoped revolver is 3 apples painted on. I looked back to the road. BLAM! Then back to the mirror. The truck veered left into oncoming traffic, and got hit by a car. She slipped back in, put on her seat belt, and was rolling up the window when I said:

“So, where to,       Little Pip?” I asked calmly. She looked over at me with surprise.

“How do you know who I…? Oh, the revolver.”

“Yep.” The car slowed down as I eased up on the gas.

“To your house,” Little Pip said.

“Was that Velvet at the school last Monday?”

Pip sigh “Yes”

“Calamity?”

“Yes”

“Why are you all here?”

She paused for a moment, then said, “To protect you.”

“Me? Why me?”

“Let’s just say you’re going to do great things,”

We were almost to the turn to go up the street to my house when the conversation went silent. We pulled into the driveway. I just turned off the engine when Little Pip spoke up.

“You need a gun.”

“What?” I responded. She pulled out the revolver with the black handle and set it on the dash.

“No, I can’t take this.” I said

“Keep it on you at all times.”

“What makes you think I am going to take it?”

“2 reasons, 1, you know that you’re being hunted, and 2, you’re not stupid.” I grabbed the revolver off the dash and looked at it. Little pip rolled up her sleeve and checked time on her pit boy.

“I’ve got to go.” Little Pip stated

“OK”

She climbed out of the car and went down the road, out of site.

I examined the gun closely. It’s a black ascension revolver with a 6 shot cylinder. I checked the brake ascension, cylinder rotation and bullets. When I was finished examining the gun, I got out of the car and walked inside my home and straight up to my room.

I know what’s coming. The news is going to be all over this. I recalled the trucks. My bedroom door swung open as my younger sister walked in.

“Sky?” she asked questioningly.

“Yes?” I responded in a calm tone.

“Can you design something for me?”

“Ya, sure.” I got up from my bed and moved over to my writing desk.

Authors note

Sky Stroke did not describe his old bedroom, but I have seen what it looks like. Start from the door leading into his room, there is a writing desk with a closet to the right. When you step into the room and look right there’s a bed to the left of it. There’s a rug with a city on it and to the right 2 dressers.

“Can you design me a sports car that’s fast and looks cool?”

“Ya sure” I sat down and pulled out a pic of grid paper and a pencil. I began designing the car. The design started out simple and with input from my sister, the car started to look better. In a matter of minutes, my sister had designed a great-looking car.

“So, how did lunch go?” My sister asked.

“Not as well as I would have hope” I responded.

“What Happened?”

“I would prefer not to talk about it right now.”

“Okay,” my sister and I talked about a few other things before she stepped out. After she left my, thoughts started whirling out of control. I will get no sleep tonight.

THUD! My head jolts back up. No not again.  It’s Tuesday and this is the 5th time today. At least it’s just 3rd period, just one more period to go.

“Sky, are you okay?” The teacher asked.

“Not after what happened last night and what’s going to be happening today. I’m going to be lucky if I can get any sleep throughout the week.” I replied in my sleep deprived tone.

“And, what happened last night?” she asked. Well, no point in trying to hide it. I opened my mouth to speak when (name) spoke up for me.

“Last night, there was another shooting, and this time they made the target clear,”

The teacher asked the question. “Who?” in a questioning tone.

“me,” I said flatly. “and before you ask, yes I am, yes I've talked to the police. No, I don’t know why I am being hunted, and no, I don’t know who is after me.”

I could see the look on her face go pale. “Go ahead and sleep. It sounds like you are going to need it.”

Later, I had just got out of school and walked over to my car and stepped in. I pulled out my phone and looked at the check list that I made the night before.

                    Go to school- check

                    Go to the police station- blank

                    Buy combat boots- blank

                    Survive the day-blank

So, to the police station I go.

At the police station, I told the cop most of what happened last night. I skipped over the part where she gave me the revolver and the realization of who she was. Then the police surprised me

I thought I was going to get a police escort, not a SWAT escort. I was given a number that I had to call before I went anywhere that way they would have time to get the SWAT van in position to escort me. Sure it’s a 15 to 30 minute wait, but It should be worth it.

Thursday. After School, I went to the store to pick up some goodies and some thank you cards for the men in the SWAT who had to escort me. Hopefully, there will be no more attempts on my life, that way by the end of the week, I can go from a SWAT escort to a police escort. I had just pulled out of the parking lot with the bearcat right behind me when one of those 50 cal. Truck came barreling around a corner a block away. The gun was sitting in the back right corner of the truck and went it stopped sitting, he stood up and as he grabbed the 50 cal. He went wide eyed. the road that we had turned onto has 4 lanes and the traffic is minor.

        The S.W.A.T. van went barreling past me to my left. The 50 cal. roared to life shooting at the Bearcat for only a second or two. CRASH! The S.W.A.T. van rammed the truck. The 50 cal. machine gunner smashed into the S.W.A.T. van headfirst. the back doors swung open as 4 S.W.A.T. personnel came out. The swung around the SUV  not a van. not an SUV. A Bearcat is a armored personnel  transport or an APT for short.

        The two men inside the truck were finally drawing their pistol when… BANG! BANG! They both got shot by the S.W.A.T. Team’s M4. Another 50 cal. truck came swerving from the same direction that the other 1st one had come from. I also could hear the screeching from behind. I looked back and saw another 50 cal. truck come from the left.

BSSSHH WOO… BOOM!

        The truck went swerving out of control as the 50 cal. machine gunner flew off and hit the ground bloodily. The truck isn't very much better most of and it is veering to its left. Because of the lack of a rear left wheel. I turned and saw the other 50 cal. truck as a bullet went through the Driver side window. It swerved into a cr. Physics once again were not on the gunner’s side and he flew off. The passenger try to pull a gun but was quickly shot. I would find out later that there were support to be 2 more.

When I got home, the S.W.A.T. Team explained what happened to my dad. After the S.W.A.T. team left, my dad told me to wait in the family room. My dad stepped into his room for a moment and then came back out with an old, beat-up journal

“Sky Stroke,” He said a come pinned tone

“Yes” I said will eyed the journal from what I could see of it. there is a magic spark on the worn brown leather cover.

“This is my old… spell journal. I want you to have it.” he said. I look at it skeptically as he handed it to me.

“Well, um… thank you… I don’t know what to say.”

He grinned and said “A huge will be good enough” I chuckled and then gave him a hug.

Late that night, I was pouring over the spells. Each Page had a spell written in a special format.

Name of Spell

Effect of said spell

How to cast it said spell

Mental tricks to help cast it.

and if any danger, what are they

     (Something blacked out)

(Page Number)

Inside the title page, my father’s name was sight. Star Swirl the Bearded.

        Midway through the book, the writing Stopped aside from page numbers. On the last page, written in spell format, there was a time travel spell that would in quick summary send a “Pony” back to a desired point in time.Where the blacked-out part should have been was written: “Incomplete” in red letters.

For this spell, unlike most, the spell this one used numbers. Under how to use the spell, line 2 it read: “A random number for milliseconds, then year, month, day, hour, minute, second. That you want to manipulate. I started shuffling through the spell and noticed a pattern. First, you would summon the magic need and then depending on the spell would depend on if the spell could just be case or if it needed extra preparation like binding the magic or doubling the magic. I wrote the Time travel spell as an Equation:

X(input)-A= Y(output)4=N(needed magic)

Then I realized what was wrong. It wasn't millisecond, it must be some type of inter dimensional code or number or something like that.