The final world has finally opened up. The world of Edmund is gray and gloomy as ever. Memory losses have become an issue, but death is a more important factor to take note of. Each power wielder now has to face the truth as to why they are who they are. Are some born different? Many people would want to show their worth to the world while one may claim that saving the world is the most important ordeal to go through. Many students will show their impact and reason through existence, past, and of course, Rena’s storytelling. Of course, she has lots to tell but there is little time left. What will the group decide to do next in the world of Edmund…?
Episode 94 - Side-Effects Are the Tests of Survival
Swimming session finally arrived for the Freshmen Physical Education class. Matt, Santi and Shirley were standing at the edge of the building while many students were entering the pools. The heat was rising again in mid-May. “I can’t wait to finish. You know I can’t swim.” Matt said to his friends Shirley and Santi. Matt decided to go into the eight-foot deep pool to test his ability to float.
Shirley took notice of his leave from the smaller pool. “U-Um… Do you think that’s a good idea? Don’t forget, your fire powers could affect the way you swim.”
“That’s no problem. I can just jump out if anything happens. Look, at the corner, there is a rail for me to hold on to and I can just get out of the pool when I need to. Can’t you tell how boring it is for me to just sit around the smaller pools? Everyone else is watching us in this kiddy pool.”
Santi was on the border of the deeper pool, “Everyone is watching you two being a bunch of fails. I have nothing to do with it.”
Matt and Shirley yelled at him at the same time, “We are NOT fails!!”
Matt thought of more reasons to go into the bigger pool, “Oh yeah, and I had enough practice surviving through the rain in Edmund so I should be fine.”
Shirley gasped, “No way! You went to Edmund already? I wanted to go too. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Rena said you had some family stuff to do last Saturday.”
Shirley frowned, “Damn, yeah I did…”
Matt decided to go on ahead into the deeper pools. “Do you need help?” Santi asked.
“Don’t mock me.” Matt said. He continued. Santi looked down in Matt’s shame.
“He doesn’t even know what he’s getting into…” Shirley rolled her eyes.
After a few minutes, Matt was constantly falling underwater because of his failure to float. “Oops. I just need to try again.” He tried and tried, but it was too difficult for him. Perhaps it was impossible for him to even learn how to swim in the first place due to his fire powers. “If everyone can learn how to float, then I can!” Matt tried to float once more but suddenly his stomach felt pulled. He fell underwater at a quick speed. The splashes and anguished noise alerted a few students.
Alex was next to Shirley. He spoke to her about Matt, “That retarded kid needs to calm down. What is he doing now?”
Shirley giggled, “He just likes to learn… about swimming. That’s all, hehe.” She looked away with a frown, “(What do you think you’re doing, Matt?)”
Matt jumped back to the top and then he grabbed onto the rail. Luckily, the class period was ending and all of the students were going to their designated lockers. Matt ran into the boy’s lockers and then he ran into the stalls. He tried to close the door but he became too tired. He knelt down. His heart was racing fast but it felt tight at the same time. It was the same feeling as if a person were to be trapped in a really hot sauna. Matt was sweating. He could not speak and he could barely think to himself. “(What… is going on? Why am I sweating? My fire powers are supposed to protect me from sweat and heat…)”
Santi finished changing his clothes. He took a look at Matt’s shoe, which stuck out from under the doorway, “Matt, are you in there?” Matt could not speak. He was too tired and it seemed as if he was about to blank out. Santi could hear Matt’s vigorous whooping coughs. “Hey!” Santi knew Matt was not going to the restroom at all. He knew something was wrong with Matt. Santi checked if the door was locked but it was slightly leaning open. He pushed the door open and then he knelt down to check up on Matt, “You don’t look so well.” He felt Matt’s forehead and then said, “A fever? This cannot be good!”
~~~
Matt slowly opened his eyes. He took a look around the room and he saw Shirley and Santi sitting beside him. Matt sat up really quick and then he yelled out, “What happened?!”
Shirley jumped from surprise, “Wah- Aiy, you scared me.”
“Take a look around.” Santi said.
Matt noticed that he was in the nurse’s office. It appeared to Matt that Santi had alerted the workers in the pool area and Shirley followed along to answer a few questions. “What you did was really stupid.” Shirley whispered. “Didn’t we already warn you that your fire powers would get all retarded if you mess with water for too long?”
“I didn’t think it would be that bad…” Matt frowned. “Edmund could have helped me practice surviving the rain.”
Santi rolled his eyes, “Uh, not that quickly. Weeks ago in my performance at the auditorium, you clearly saw how badly my malfunctioned time powers were. The both of us could have died easily right at our own moments. I thought you would have learned your lesson after seeing what happened to me.”
“Seriously, how did you not learn your lesson after seeing Santi like that a few days ago?” Shirley gave Matt an apple, “Here. Eat this. Maybe it will make you feel better.”
Matt pushed the apple away from his face, “N-No thank you. I’m fine. How can I explain this to my parents?”
“Don’t worry about that. We told the nurse that it was a simple fever. They said that you’d heal up after you wake up, which you did and now you are back to normal.” Shirley said calmly. “She suggested you to go home after you wake up but we went against that.”
“Why did you?” Matt wondered.
Shirley crossed her arms. “Don’t think we’re stupid. We know you want a perfect attendance so we told the nurse about it and she understood.”
“Wow… thanks guys.” Matt was happy that his friends were there to support him at such an important situation.
“Oh yeah, later on today… I have to find a book at the library for my last book report. Do you guys want to go with me?” Santi asked.
Shirley quivered in fear, “Yuck, I hate the library. It’s so boring. You guys can go.”
Matt decided to go with Santi, “I’ll go because I need a book too. After school, right?”
“Yeah. See you later then!” Santi got up from his chair and he decided to leave the nurse’s office.
~~~
At the public library, Matt found Santi looking at the adult section. “Gross, what are you doing?!”
“W-Wait! I swear, Yessenia brought me here.” Santi was astonished.
“Oh really?” Matt looked at the book, “You are such a pervert. What is this?”
Yessenia interrupted them; “Calm down, I just needed something funny to do while I am here. I told him that this section has his favorite kinds of books.”
Matt took a random book out from the shelf, “These books sure are your favorite.” He joked. He saw the book cover and then he threw it at Santi, “Eagh!”
Santi caught the book and then he looked at the book cover as well, “This is very inappropriate. Maybe we should leave this section fast.”
Matt saw his mother working at a far distance on another bookshelf, “Seriously, let’s leave fast before I’m accused of looking at these books.” As they left, Matt asked, “Now where are the adventurous teenager books?”
“You seriously think there will be books of teenagers going on dangerous adventures?” Santi questioned him.
“Fine. Where are the adventure books?” Matt was searching around the teenager bookshelf.
Yessenia questioned him as well, “And you think you would find adventure books from a teenage bookshelf?”
Matt clenched his fists, “Where are the teenager books?”
“Oh, everywhere.” Santi opened his arms for the bookshelf, “They are not classics but they are interesting to read.” So, the three students decided to search around for a book that interested them.
~~~
Meanwhile back in school, Stan found Jen walking out of the entrance. “Hey Jen, are you going home already?”
“Yes. Stan, right?” Jen giggled.
Stan was annoyed at the fact that Jen was talking as if she barely knows him, “Er, yeah. Listen, I got a surprise for you. Do you know about Edmund?”
“Edmund? What is that?” Jen became curious. She dropped her backpack onto the floor, indicating that she wanted to listen to Stan.
“It’s a magical place. If you come with me, I will show you all of these interesting things. One thing you need to know is that Matt could be betraying you. He said he is your best friend, right?” Jen nodded to Stan’s comment, “Well then, how come he doesn’t hang out with you often? He has other friends to hang out with so he doesn’t need you.”
“He doesn’t?” Jen became disappointed.
“He doesn’t.” Stan repeated. “And, he has a big secret to hide. You get to find out once you get to Edmund. I will teach and tell you all of these things that you didn’t know about before! Do you want to go see Edmund?”
“Is Edmund a fantasy world? It does sound interesting. Take me there.” She suggested.
“Certainly.” Stan gave an evil grin as he took out his cellphone to teleport them away into Edmund.
~~~
Mariel appeared in Edmund along with Danny. She whispered to Danny, “Sh, this looks really interesting!”
“Why do I have to whisper? There’s nothing to hide from.”
“People will think we’re weird! We don’t want to start out as weirdos.” She took notice of the sky, “Come on, we should go look around.”
After a few minutes of walking down the streets, Danny decided to finally speak up from a moment of silence, “How come nothing much changed even after 600 years?”
Mariel laughed, “Hah! You think places like these would change that much? 600 years ago from 2008, we… uh… Well, sure we’ve changed a lot but it’s possible that nothing much can change after 600 years. I wonder if we can find our future of El Monte. It must be pretty now!”
“From what we’re seeing in the sky, it doesn’t look like things will be cool…” Danny was worried.
Mariel constantly ran around, looking for the school. She found the park diagonally from the school, however. “I think I see it!”
Danny knelt down in exhaustion. “How could you have so much energy? I’m tired!”
“Water powers, Danny. I guess the rain is in favor for me! Speaking of which, I wonder how Matt’s going to survive through the rain here in Edmund.”
~~~
In Edmund’s El Monte high school, Danny hid in the shack near the entrance. The worker inside stared at them, “Another more of you weirdos…?”
“What?” Danny was confused.
“Excuse me, but is this El Monte High School?” Mariel asked.
“Of course it is. Where are you from for not knowing that?” The worker asked.
“Uh… nowhere important.”
“Well, you’re wasting your time. El Monte is no place to go sight-seeing. Rain has been pouring for days and days. Nothing ever gets better here.”
Mariel crossed her arms, “Hm, what’s going on then? Why is it always raining when global warming is still existent?”
“What is global warming?” The man asked.
“You don’t know?! Eventually, the world will be too hot and we’ll have a bunch of pollution if things keep happening.”
“Oh, you mean the Freezing Impact.”
“What the hell are you talking about? What is the Freezing Impact?” Mariel became interested in such a strange topic.
“Eventually, the world will become extremely cold. This world is far, far too cold.” The man said. “I shouldn’t stick around. My shift is almost over. You should visit someplace warmer. Good luck.” The man stood up as he walked away.
Mariel clenched her fists, “What’s going on? The world is suffering because of my powers?”
“Mariel…”
“The true reason… the true reason for me to journey along Edmund was to find a place where I can finally be happy. I’m always troubled at home and I cannot depend on anybody at school. How can I be happy in another world if it isn’t even that great?”
“But Mariel, Shirley, Yessenia, Matt, Santi and the others are dependable aren’t they?”
“Sure they help me but am I completely happy around them? We don’t even have time for each other because these damn worlds and powers are making us too busy. If only I were to have a happy life… If only I can succeed on one thing at least once, then things would be a lot better.”
“Isn’t that too much attention?”
“Well, it’s not just the praise. Edmund is El Monte’s future, isn’t it? Also, Matt usually saves us from danger but at this rate, the rain won’t stop and Matt will not be able to do anything about it. This is our turn to fight. This is our chance to show that we can make a difference!”
Danny shook his head, “I-I guess you’re right!”
“And you’ll be there to help me. I know how much you want to prove to everybody about your usefulness. Now’s your chance too.”
“Yeah!... … Where do we begin?”
“I have no idea.” Mariel said. Danny fell onto the floor in disappointment.
“Just when we were getting somewhere…”
“Sorry… Let’s go walk around the school and see if we can find some more information about Edmund.”
~~~
---- Next chapter preview:Matt: Next week on episode 95, uh... Why am I here? Most of us were rejected back in February.
Yessenia: That does not mean we cannot have fun. Get your damn racquet.
Matt: But I don't want to play... Hm, is there an event tonight? What's going on? I know them from middle school!
Mariel: Let's go, Danny. Now's our chance to shine!
Stan: Don't act like you don't know! Look around you!
Jen: Is this all true...?
Rena: This is... the burden world, Edmund. It rains all day, every day.
Danny: Does that mean this world is suffering?
Stan: You betrayed us!
Matt: Old friends, new world, a change is evolving as the story goes on through the next episode! Next time on episode 95, The Darkest Night in the Burden World!
Matt: What have I done...?
0 comments:
Post a Comment