The Good, The Bad, and...The Ponies?

When someone says that they are on the varsity football team at their school, you would think that they would be more or less part of the "popular" clique.  Hanging out with lots of friends, invited to parties, forming relationships.  That they would be living a very fun life that never gets boring or tiresome, right?  Wrong.  I've been living a life that, although not completely bad, still emotionally drained me to the core; almost like being stuck in a metaphorical rut.  It’s like life is on repeat, never changing, always the same.

On most days, I would be driving home asking myself if my life would ever change or be different, even just a little bit.  At those times I would lose track of where I was or what I was doing and almost rear-end another car.  But the thing was, I couldn’t help it.  Day in and day out, the routine was all the same; wake up, go to school, come home, do home work, sleep, and repeat.  I just wished my life would change for the better somehow... someway.

I arrived home at 3:30 P.M.  Normally I would get home at about 3:00 P.M., but because of my daydreaming I made a few wrong turns and had to back track.  As I sat in my car with the engine running, I thought to myself of what I could do.  “I have two choices right now.  Go inside and do my homework, or drive away and go do something else for a change.”  I sat there contemplating for about three minutes until I came to a single conclusion.  “Screw it.”  I shut off the car's engine and went inside my home.

My house could be described by some of the people that I knew as a “rich” house.  But from where I stood, it’s just where I lived.  My home was a two-story peach-colored house that sat on top of a hill surrounded by various other houses.  The others were owned by young couples just starting their lives or elderly couples that were either retired or close to retirement.  The driveway was really steep and lead to a two car garage which was connected to the house.  I didn't get the luxury of using it because it was where my parents parked their cars.  A concrete path crossing through the short, green grass yard lead to the main entrance to my home which was where I normally entered from.

I opened the front door and kicked off my shoes as I went inside.  When I closed the door behind me, it made a loud thud.  That sound always alerted everyone in the house that I was home, which I hated.  I always liked to get home and go up to my room unnoticed, but the door sometimes had other plans for me.  So I gave up all hope of walking in undetected and headed to the kitchen.

Walking into the kitchen, I noticed that my mom was talking to someone on the phone.  Not wanting to scare the bejesus out of her, I waved at her as I walked by so she knew that I was home.  She returned the wave with a smile as I walked into the pantry and got something to drink.  I returned just in time to see her starting to hang up the phone.  I quickened my pace to get past her and up the stairs as quickly as possibly.  But when I reached the base of the stairs she called out to me.  “Hey, Kiyoshi, could you come here for a minute?  I wanna talk to you.”  Hearing that, I turned around and slowly made my way back to her, preparing for the worst.

My mother was a middle aged, short Caucasian woman with wavy, light brown hair.  She had these hazel eyes that would either comfort or frighten you depending on her mood at the time.  And although she may have not been top of her class, she was still smarter than most people that I knew when it came to medicine and common sense.  Her way of living was a little old fashioned but she knew what she was doing while raising me and my sister.

When I got back to the kitchen, I saw that she was standing there with a worried look about her and arms crossed .  “Yes, Mom?” I asked with a cautious tone in my voice, thinking that I was in trouble.  Most of the time when she says “Can you come here for a minute?”, or “I need to talk to you.” that means that I did something and had to face the music.  But when she uses both?  Oh boy was I in a world of trouble.

She could see that I was scared and doing what any good mother that cared about their child put on a comforting smile, “What’s the matter?  I just wanted to know what school was like today.”  She asked.

“Oh.”  I looked back at her a little surprised that she wasn't angry with me.  “Nothing really happened today,” I started.  “Same stuff, different day.”

She squinted her eyes at me as if to try and see through any lies I could be telling.  Standing there waiting for her response, I gave her an awkward smile trying very hard to keep myself from running out of the room screaming.  After a few seconds, she could tell that I was telling the truth and continued to talk again, immediately changing her expression to a happier one.  “So, what kind of homework do you have today?”

Oh great.  The one question that I always hated to answer.  It always reminded me that I had a mundane task that needed to be done.  I had to think about that question for a bit.  “I think I have Math, Creative Writing, Science, English, Histo-”  Before I could finish my answer, she cut me off with a raised hand.

“Well, just from hearing that, it sounds to me that you have a lot of work to do, Mister" she said with a smile.  "So I want you to head straight up those stairs and get to work."  I turned and started to head towards the stairs when she called out again.  "Also, try not to screw around in your room, ‘cause you know just as well as I do that you can get easily distracted with your Nintendo.”

“For the fifth time, it's not a-"  I stopped myself mid sentence giving up the argument with a sigh.  "Yes mom.”  I wanted to argue about that statement but I just turned around, admitting she was right, and walked up the stairs towards my room.

My room wasn’t any different from anyone else’s room.  It was moderately sized with a twin bed, lamp, radio, desk, and posters of different things that caught my interest, mainly video games.  The floor was littered with old school papers and an incredible amount of dirty laundry.  Pushed up against the wall opposite to the door was a t.v. on top of a stand with a PS2 on the floor in front of it.  Throwing my backpack onto the floor next to my desk, I cracked my knuckles as I pulled out my assignments and got to work.

After about an hour of working on a particularly tedious English paper, I heard a knock come from my door.  Looking up at the clock next to me, the time showed that it was 8:17 P.M.  I stood up and walked over to the door.  Opening it revealed that it was my mom knocking.  I could tell just by her pleading expression that she needed me to do her a “HUGE” favor as she would like to call them.  “You need me to do something, right?” I asked with a blank expression on my face.

She looked back at me in surprise.  "I'll never understand how you and your father do that," she said with a shake of her head smiling a bit.  "Yes, actually, I need you to do me a HUGE favor and get the mail for me."  Called it.  "I forgot to get it after shopping for groceries today.”

I quickly thought up an excuse and said, “Sorry, can’t do it.  Remember?  I've got  a lot of homework to do and it’s all due tomorrow.  Just have Jade do it when she comes home from whatever it is she's doing."  The truth was, I had already completed all my other homework hours ago and was about ten minutes from being finished with writing the final draft of my English paper.

“That’s just the thing,” she started.  “Jade won’t be back till tomorrow because she staying the night at her friends house.  And your father won't be coming home tonight.  He told me that he's going to be sleeping at the hospital tonight because there was a huge influx of patients right before he got off work.  I was expecting to get something from an old friend in the mail today, so could you please get it for me?”

I tried to think of another excuse but then I saw the expression on my mothers’ face.  She had put on her version of the puppy dog eyes, which made her look like she was trying to not laugh at a terrible joke or was constipated.  With a sigh I gave in to her request.  “Fine, I’ll do it."

She quickly gave me a hug.  “Thanks, Kiyoshi!  You have no idea how much this means to me.”  She released her grip and looked at me, “Oh and by the way, you should probably take something to protect yourself.  I heard that some strange people have been walking around the neighbor at night recently, " she said with a tone of caution.

I gave her one more hug before saying, “I can safely say that not many people would mess with a kid my size, but if it’ll make you feel better, I’ll do it.”  I turned around, grabbed my wooden katana off the wall and made my way to the front door.  "Be back in a bit."

"Be safe!" She shouted to me as I left.

What I said about me was true; I was a pretty big for my age.  Sure I was the tallest in my family standing at a proud 5'10", but that didn't make me the tallest person in general.  But, for what I lacked in height, I sure as hell made up for it in strength.  In a lot of cases, my strength would be considered either "scary" or "intimidating" as some would say.  Some people have even purposely avoided me because of it, much to my annoyance.

As I neared the mailbox, I noticed that the night air was cooler than usual and that the stars were out.  Normally, the air was warm and the stars weren’t visible because of the city lights, but it felt good as the cool night air blew on my face.  Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath to capture what was sure to be a fleeting moment of what some would call "Zen".  Feeling relaxed, I opened my eyes to see a strange light in my peripherals.  I focused on the strange red light and realized it was coming from a place that I held dear to me.

“Sorry mom, but you’re gonna have to wait a few more minutes,” I said to myself as I walked past the mailbox and continued towards the playground where I used to play as a child.

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When I got there, I saw that the place was a mess.  There was trash discarded everywhere on the ground, and graffiti tagged the walls.  Sure there was a trash can, but people just chose to ignore it from the look of things.  Feeling that I had to do something about it, I started to throw away the garbage.

The playground was a very important place to me.  I would go there every day after elementary school got out.  It was there that I made my first few friends, shared laughs, and most importantly, had fun.  But those days have long since passed.  My friends moved on, the laughs ended and the fun stopped.  Eventually I ended up alone and had no one to make any memories with.  Sure I was able to make new friends later on, but it just wasn’t the same.  It seemed like they faked being my friend for their own benefits, whatever they may be.  So the only time I went there was to reminisce the good times of my past.

When I finished picking up the trash, I looked around to see if I had missed anything.  From the corner of my eye, I noticed a small circle drawn on the ground 10 feet to my right.  My curiosity got the better of me and I decided to walk over and see what it was.

While I approached the circle, I could see that there were some weird scribbles drawn inside of it, but I still couldn’t make out what it said so I continued to get even closer.  I was standing a foot away from the circle when I was able to know what was in it.  What looked like scribbles at first, turned out to be runic type shapes and animals.

I could recognize the animals that were in it.  There were dragons, bears, cats, dogs, and various other creatures.  It definitely wasn't something that a child could draw.  But what caught my eye the most were the horses.

The interesting thing about them wasn’t how many there were compared to the other animals.  It was that they varied in type.  Some of them actually had wings, horns, or were a normal horse.  I’m not sure, but I think that one or two of them had wings and a horn.

I knelt down to get a better look.  “What is this?”  I whispered.  I reached towards the edge of the circle hoping that I could rub it off.  But as soon as my index finger touched the circle, it flashed a with bright red light and started to expand at a great speed.  I fell onto my back in surprise.

“What the hell?!”  I shouted as I scrambled to my feet to try and get away from the circle, but it was too late.  The circle had extended far behind me by the time I had fully stood up.  I ran as quickly as I could to get out of it, but when I reached the edge, I ran into something head first, throwing me on my back.

Slowly I sat up rubbing my aching forehead.  "Did anyone get the number of that bus,” I asked no one in particular.  Shaking off the dizziness, I looked up to see a glowing red symbol about the size of a basketball floating where I had tried to run.

"I am NOT gonna be stopped by a stupid... whatever you are."  I tried time and time again to exit the barrier.  Each attempt ended with the same result: me getting knocked on my ass and a stronger headache.  I came to a frightening conclusion as I stared up at the night sky after my fifth attempt at escaping.  "I'm trapped."

I stood up trying to look for and exit but there was no way out.  Several of the symbols were floating around the circle, a new one in each spot where I tried to escape.  I could feel myself getting more and more tired by the second.  I looked down at my chest to see that a faint red stream was flowing out of it and into each of the symbols.  "I need to get the fuck outta here."

Each step was getting heavier than the last as I approached the edge of the barrier.  Once I reached one of the symbols, I placed my hands on it and started pushing with all of my might.  From the amount of times I ran into the symbols I knew that there was something I could push against.  My muscles strained from exhaustion, but I kept going because I wanted to get out before anything bad could happen.  "Why... won't... you... MOVE?"  I grunted angrily.

I had a small glimmer of hope rising in my chest as I felt the symbol moving backwards.  But my reverie didn't last long.  My hope was all but shattered when an unknown voice spoke that terrified me to no end.  "You aren't escaping, Kiyoshi.  Your soul is MINE!"  The voice laughed in an almost psychotic way as the symbol glowed brighter.  With a surge of light, it knocked me back to the ground near the center of the circle.

I lay there on the ground sweating and out of breath with no energy to even stand.  With all hope gone, tears started to well up in my eyes.  I could feel myself slowly slipping in and out of consciousness.  “Welp," I said aloud with a yawn, "I guess if I'm gonna lose my soul, I may as well get comfortable before it happens.”  I wiped my tears off my face as I laced my fingers together over my stomach.  I closed my eyes feeling myself falling into a dark haze.  "Heh," I laughed to myself.  "This sure is one hell of a way to go; trapped inside of a bullshit cage."

I started to think of the good times of my past.  Hanging out at the playground as a child, celebrating birthdays, spending time with my family, playing and sharing laughs with friends.  All of those memories made me feel truly happy.  The last thing I felt before falling unconscious was a small smile forming on my face and a single tear sliding down the side of my face.