So, this is the second draft of my first scene from this year's NaNo WriMo, BURNING FOR THE GLORY OF PEACE! I've revised it a good bit. I hope you enjoy it.
Chapter 1 (Jerked into trouble)
Crack!
John’s white cellphone snapped in
half when he flipped it open.
The screen-half of his cellphone
bounced off of the steps leading into Higashi-Washinomiya station and landed
beside the large red postbox. The bright, noonday sun reflected from the screen
into his eyes.
“Fuck!” John spiked the other half
then yelled.
The handful of people milling around
the train station turned to stare at him with their mouths agape. Among them, there
was not a single member of the PTA. Luckily, his students’ parents were busy hosting
a summer bazaar at his school despite
the heat and humidity.
After shaking his head, John climbed
the steps into the station. Just because
I’m a teacher, doesn’t mean I should have to work these Saturday events. He
groaned. All I want to do for the rest of
the day is relax and grab a few beers with Taisei. He pulled out his wallet
and touched it to the ticket gate.
When it read the Suica inside his
wallet, the ticket gate dinged.
John moved towards the bathroom
until the nose shredding scent of bleach slapped him in the face. His eyes
watered.
A middle-aged woman stepped from the
men’s bathroom with a bucket in one hand and a mop in the other. She wore her
brown hair that was a bit darker than his own in a bun. Just like his mother.
Thump!
John’s heart slammed into his chest,
and he gasped. His hands trembled.
His mother’s face appeared in his
mind. Suddenly, a sneer contorted her lips.
A choking sensation washed over him.
His mother screamed.
John’s muscles slacked. He reached
towards the nightstand beside his red racecar bed and patted its smooth surface.
Something cold rested under his
hand. Something hard. Something sharp.
John killed the memory and turned
away from the bathroom. Why? He
sniffled. Why did she make me do it?
After wiping the tears from his cheeks, he stumbled over to the escalator then
rode it to the second platform.
Dozens of people crowded the Utsunomiya-line
platform that headed towards Tokyo. Buzzing conversations riddled the air. The
musty stink of Japanese salary-men and their inability to use deodorant made
John gag.
By moving closer to the tracks and
away from the smell, John tried to hold down the onigiri that he had eaten
earlier. He closed his eyes. Several calming breaths later, he opened them
again.
Gray stones littered the train
tracks, standing out among the brown ones.
“What are those for?” John blinked.
Something pulled at him. The gray
stones pulsed — thumped like a beating heart. They called out to him.
In order to inspect them further,
John leaned forward. Maybe I could grab —
“Fucking wonderful,” a youthful voice
said from behind in Japanese. The voice carried the vowels a bit too long.
John spun.
A Japanese man more than a head-length
shorter than John stood there. The man’s gray hair contrasted his child-like
face, giving him an old yet young appearance. The man marched towards John.
The stench of burning potatoes
filled the air.
John’s upper-lip curled, and he
scrubbed his tongue across his teeth. Who’s
cooking potatoes?
The man’s eyes shifted from brown
and began to glow a shade of red that matched John’s own.
“Wh— why?” John stumbled backwards. “Why
are your eyes glowing?”
“So, seeing the stones wasn’t a
fluke.” The man grunted. “At least you speak Japanese.”
At a loss for words, John nodded.
“But for someone to awaken here?
Right in front of me?” The man spat. “And a foreigner
at that.”
“Awaken?”
“No time to explain now.” The man
grabbed him by the arm. “Don’t puke on me like the last foreigner I met in a
station. That dirty Picasso … .” A pencil-thick, blue cable extended from his
stomach and touched one of the gray stones.
The world lurched. John’s stomach
twisted, and his onigiri came up. While colors and shapes passed by in a blur, the
splatter of vomit echoed in the distance like a soft whisper. Wind ripped at his
face. Kuki station disappeared behind him. Haseda station barely registered. Then,
everything became still.
The man released John’s arm
somewhere outside of Omiya station.
John fell to his knees. “What —” He
coughed. “— just happened.”
“Come.” The man gestured towards
McDonalds. “We must prepare for the job.”
“Who — better yet, what are you?”
The man shrugged. “The same as you …
just older.” He grinned. “Call me Hyuga.”
John’s
heart thumped, and his mouth went
dry. “I … .” His voice cracked. Should
probably run away from this monster, but how? Several deep breaths later,
he pushed himself to his feet. He wobbled
back and forth.
“Come
on.”
“McDonalds?
Really?”
“We
need to recharge and prepare.”
“Again
… McDonalds? Really?”
Hyuga
laughed. “I’ll explain once we sit down to eat.” He patted John on the back.
John
stumbled forward, and his knees
buckled.
Hyuga
reached out and grasped onto John’s shoulder, keeping John from falling face first into the
street. “Besides, you need to get your bearings before we do anything.”
“Ha!” That’s putting it lightly.
Keeping
John firmly in his grip, Hyuga marched towards McDonalds. With a straight face,
he ordered ten large french fries and nothing else.
The clerk arched an eyebrow.
John
returned the gesture and rubbed at his throat. “Water too … please.”
Hyuga
sighed as if the free water cost him a trip to Tokyo Disney Sea. “I guess I’ll take a water, too.” Once
the ten large french fries had been piled atop two trays, he gestured for John
to follow him upstairs.
John
followed with a hesitant step. Strength slowly returned to his knees, and by
the time he reached the top of the stairs, he felt like he could make a run for it. Though, he doubted he could get far if Hyuga really wanted to keep him close.
John would have his peaceful weekend.
He just would, but a quick lunch
at McDonalds wouldn’t waste too much of his time. He could sit.
While
his head jerked back and forth, Hyuga edged forward into the dining room. “Over
there.” He pointed to the far corner in the smoking section.
“Do
you smoke?”
“No.”
“Then
why not —” John gestured towards a table on his left. “— here?”
“Too
many people to hear what I have to say.”
“Oh …
.” I don’t like this at all.
“Come
on.” Hyuga strolled into the smoking section and took the outer seat facing the
wall.
Despite
John never sitting on the inside,
against the wall, he didn’t complain. Who knew what this Hyuga was capable of. “So —”
“Start
eating first. I’ll talk.” Hyuga shoved a fistful of french fries into his mouth
and chewed once before swallowing.
John’s
stomach turned. How can he
eat french fries like that? “Ummm —”
“I said eat.”
The
burning smells of rancid tobacco drifted through the air while the bustling
conversations blanketed the entire dining room. So many people continued to
walk in.
John’s fingers clung to the
table.
Puke
rose into the back of John’s mouth. The unclean table twisting his stomach
tighter than Hyuga did on the trip
back to Omiya.
After swallowing,, John ate
some unhealthy, disgusting french fries.
“That’s
more like it.” Hyuga ingested another handful of french fries. “You’re probably
asking yourself, why did we only order french fries? And what does this have to
do with magic?”
Yes … actually … . “Wait … magic?” A
french fry caught in John’s throat, and he choked. He took a gulp of water then coughed.
“Well,
that is a general term for it. It’s more of a power than magic.”
I want to argue about how stupid this
sounds, but … . “And the potatoes?”
Hyuga
swallowed another mouthful. “Every type of power-user must pay a cost. Ours
just happens to be potatoes.”
“That
makes perfect sense.”
Hyuga’s
brow scrunched.
John rolled
his eyes. Japanese people just don’t
understand sarcasm. “By perfect sense, I mean that it makes absolutely no
sense at all.”
“I
see. A foreigner joke?”
“Racist
much?”
“Not
that much, but a little.”
Before
groaning, John squeezed the bridge of his nose. “Great. This is wonderful.”
“I’ll
make an exception for you since your Japanese is so clean.”
John
nodded, trying not to smile. One thing he was proud of was his level of
Japanese after studying so hard for
so long.
“Anyway,
Chefs —”
“Chefs?”
John blinked a few times then
shook his head. “What —”
“Our
kind. It’s the designated term for power-users who require potatoes.”
“Oh.”
“Where
was I?” Hyuga scratched the crown of his head. “Oh yeah. So, potatoes are the
fuel that we burn in our Stomach Ovens
to power our link … s.” He stared into John’s eyes. “Red … so, who have you
killed?”
John gulped. My mother. “Killed?” He shook his head. “No, no, no. I was born
with red eyes.” Wasn’t I?
“I see
… .”
“You’re
so racist.”
Hyuga
chuckled. “Sometimes. Too bad though. Having someone else on my side with more
than one link would have been nice.”
“More
than one link?”
“Yes.
A Chef is only born with one link. They must kill someone close to them to harvest
more.”
John licked his dry lips, and the salt burned them.
Is that why Mother was trying to
suffocate me in my sleep that night? “I understand. But how do potatoes we
eat power the magic?”
“Simple.”
Hyuga waggled his index-finger. “You ignite your Stomach Oven then mentally shovel potatoes into it from your Stomach
Fridge. It will activate
your link, and you attach the link to an infused item.”
“An
infused —”
“Just
try to burn for now and extend your link.”
John
closed his eyes, and for some reason, he could see three objects within his mind. One looked like a pile
of gold while the other two were stone-like and hot to the mental-touch. Why
had he never sensed these before? Is that what Hyuga meant earlier by awaken? Because John was sure what the
second source of heat was, he fed the golden substance into only one.
Heat. A blazing inferno. Then, the
strong scent of burning potatoes filled the area around him and crushed the stink of tobacco.
His
stomach felt like it was on fire, though it didn’t hurt. John opened his eyes
to see a glowing, translucent cable extend from his stomach.
A deep crimson light bathed the
table.
“What?” John trembled then the Stomach Oven cut off on its own.
The link vanished.
The red light disappeared.
Though it thinned, the smell
of burned potatoes still remained.
Hyuga
clapped. “Very good. For your first time, that was amazing.” After checking his
watch, he shook his head. “I’ll explain more later. For now, just eat.”
Feeling
a touch of excitement, John began
to shovel the french fries into his
mouth. His peaceful weekend could wait a little while longer.
###
Next: Update #20 BURNING Chapter 2 scene 1 Draft 2
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