The Chosen Fang [Volume 1: Scairmont Academy]

"Monster!"   Wake up.   "Freak!"   Wake up.   "Evil!" Lucas, wake up!     His eyes shot open, but Lucas was confused by his surroundings. It appeared that he was inside some sort of moving vehicle. An unfamiliar man sat behind the wheel, a brown fedora hiding his face. Lucas’ eyes continued to search around the vehicle, but the car wasn’t recognizable in any way. A familiar voice spoke up from the passenger's seat—the words unintelligible. Lucas felt as if his ears were broken or something. His vision was also lacking, so he tried moving to get a better view, but upon further inspection, he realized he was constricted, bound around his arms and legs. What the hell did they do to you? This is some kinky s**t. He started to wiggle a bit more frantically, catching the attention of the person in the passenger seat. "Oh, he's awake," she said to the man. The driver glanced at Lucas through his rear-view mirror. The woman in the passenger seat turned to get a better look. "Lucas, sweetie. Don't worry, you're safe." "M-mom," Lucas stuttered. "W-What's going on?" "I know this is probably very confusing for you," she responded, avoiding the question. "Sheri, don't. He's still not quite right in the head," the man whispered to her. Lucas could somehow hear those words loud and clear. It was strange as if he was saying it right to his face in normal volume. "Who is he?" Lucas asked, staring at the driver. "Everything will make a little more sense very soon," his mother told him. "Hello Lucas, I'm Dr. Benicio Electi," the man finally spoke up. "You can call me Ben if it's easier." "Dr. Electi…Ben is here to help," she smiled. His mother faced forward once again, leaving her son alone in the backseat. Lucas leered at both of them, still wildly confused. His eyes found their way back to his body. He examined the chains binding him. They even managed to get a seat belt on him. What is all of this? Lucas managed to wiggle himself into an even more uncomfortable position. His goal was to get to the window. He wasn't trying to escape, although it wasn't out of the question. He just needed a visual, to see where he was—where they were taking him. With the seat belt on, his task proved to be even more difficult. His hands were bound together, but his fingers were free to move. If he could at least unbuckle the seat belt, then he would be allowed the slightest bit more movement. He arched his back in the most awkward of ways but managed to get his hands on the belt buckle. His fingers pushed down on the button as hard as they could and he was soon free. Well, free from one thing. The seat belt was only a tiny obstacle. The rest of his body was bound by the strongest of chains. Was this necessary? Lucas continued to wiggle his body closer to the window. He tried his best to make minimal sounds to not attract any attention—these people were the ones who tied him up. Who knew what else they would do to him? He didn't want to think that way about his mother, but recently things had differed between them. All his life, Lucas could only depend on her. His father passed around the time of his birth, so Lucas never really had a chance to meet him. From then, it was just the two of them. He trusted her with everything. He told her everything and she did the same. Or at least, he thought she did. His memory of the past 24 hours, or however long it had been; was a little foggy. Lucas wasn't entirely sure what happened. All he could remember were the events leading up to it and that his mother was acting rather suspicious. Lucas thought he was just very ill. His skin was getting paler. Normally, people would just assume that he had food poisoning—ya know, regular sick stuff. Then more things started to change. Lucas was 14 now, so he thought all of his teeth had already grown in. In this case, he didn't necessarily grow more teeth, but two of them began to change shape. Looking at them closely, he would joke and say that they were fangs. This joke didn't age very well. Sure, things weren't too insane, these were just tiny changes. However, adding this together with a newfound disdain for the sun, Lucas was now unable to leave his house without piling on pounds of sunscreen. Unfortunately, this proved ineffective. His paleness wasn't going away and the sunscreen was practically worthless. All of this would lead up to the event that Lucas couldn't quite remember. The last thing he could recall was being at school. A friend of his got hurt during their physical education class. It wasn't too bad of a wound, just a skinned knee, but there was blood—quite a bit of it. It was hard to look away, especially for Lucas. That was all that came back to him. He wasn't sure what directly followed it. He didn't know how long ago it was. This was where he ended up next, in the back of some car. There were also these three words that kept repeating in his mind. He couldn't make out the voices. It was all scrambled together. Monster. Freak. Evil. People were yelling these words at him for some reason. Something huge happened, but what? Why did his mother feel the need to get help from this Dr. Electi guy? Perhaps, “Why did they bind him with chains?” was a better inquiry. Was his friend okay? Lucas wanted to scream all of these questions at his mother, but he couldn't. He wasn't sure how to scream. It was hard enough for him to utter the few words he did. Lucas Lockwood, what happened to you? Lucas finally made it over to the window. He angled his body to the side, sliding up against the door slamming his face into the window. That could have been better executed, Lucas. Don't ya think? He ignored it and did his best to take in anything familiar outside, ultimately coming up empty. They were the only car on the road—if you could call it a road—it was more of a dirt path. The only notable surroundings in the area were the insanely tall trees that were hiding some secrets. Other than that, Lucas was stuck in the middle of nowhere. Then his eyes began to focus on an object in the distance. Further, into the woods, he thought he saw something, maybe someone. Lucas was sure it was a young girl running through the trees, but it was nearly impossible. This would mean that the girl was fast enough to keep up with the speed of the car.  Lucas blinked and she was gone. That was if she was truly there. He wondered where she was going, what she was running from. Did she know her way around? Was she able to find her way?  Even if Lucas tried to escape and make a run for it, he wouldn't run far. Maybe a little further into the trees, but then he'd get lost. There was no telling if he was in the same country anymore. This was probably his most frightening realization. Scaredy cat. "Shut up," Lucas managed to utter. His mother whipped her head around to see who Lucas was speaking to. Nobody else was there. Then she noticed that he wasn't buckled in anymore. Their eyes met and Lucas was even more afraid than before. She reached over and grabbed the seat belt, buckling Lucas back into place. He tried to fight it but his mother was persistent. Ben was watching through the mirror, making eye contact with Lucas for a second. Sheri continued to stare at her son, more concerned than before. She tried whispering something to Ben, but Lucas could hear everything clear as day. She said something about her son experiencing delusions or hearing voices in his head.  Lucas rolled his eyes. His mother didn't understand. She wasn't the one who had to deal with it. Sure, it's normal for some people to sometimes hear a "little voice" in their head. Everyone may experience it once in a while. Lucas experienced it every day, ever since he was a child. He thought of it as having a "little Lucas" in his head. He nicknamed the voice "Lucian." He couldn't shake it, no matter how hard he tried. He was stuck with it, and he had no way of controlling it. Lucian would speak to Lucas at the worst of times and make it a point to comment on things that he did wrong. It was like being married. He wasn't sure why he was hearing the voice or why it wouldn't go away, but he knew he had to get used to it. This proved to be a difficult task. Sheri continued to whisper things to the driver, not knowing that Lucas could hear everything. She asked Ben what was going to happen to him when they get there. Get where? Ben told her that it would be safer. He said, “Lucas would eventually come around to the idea. The academy is the best place for him to be.” The academy? Sheri kept saying that she felt bad, which was kind of surprising given how she got this far without seemingly feeling anything. Lucas didn't want to hear any of this. Unfortunately, he couldn't stop it. She was loud and clear and he couldn't turn it off. He did his best to distract himself by looking outside, but his body, still bound to the seat, made it only so he could lift his head. He could barely see anything, just the tops of the trees. It hurt, but he tried to lift his head a bit more. He wanted to see if that girl was still there or if she was a mirage. Nothing. Nobody was there. He pondered if she ever really existed. Nah, you're just going crazy. He rested his head again, relinquishing any fight he had left in him. This was out of his control. He was forced to go wherever they were taking him, even if it was in the middle of nowhere. "Ahhhh!" his mother suddenly shrieked as the car began to shake. "What is that?" Lucas' head shot up immediately. Sheri was speaking of the creature attacking the car. It was hard to make out, especially in the position Lucas was in. It soon moved to the top of the car, beginning to make holes in the ceiling with its claws. Was it a bear? A wolf? Some cross between the two? "Doctor! Do something!" Sheri exclaimed. "Don't worry," he replied, in a calm voice. Strangely, Ben didn't seem to be as fazed. "I've got this." He let go of the wheel and started moving his hands into different positions. Lucas allowed himself to officially panic knowing that nobody was driving the car and that some evil beast was possibly trying to murder their faces. "What about the wheel?" Sheri panicked. She unbuckled herself and reached for the steering wheel, holding it in place. Ben continued to make movements with his hands. "Ianuae Magicae ad Scairmont Academy," he finally uttered. Scairmont Academy? Ben's hands now started to glow. He lifted them in front of his face, separating them slowly. As his hands moved further away, a bright purple portal opened before him. "Whoa." Lucas gawked. "Come on! Get inside the portal! We don't have much time!" he commanded. "What about Lucas?" Sheri inquired, unbuckling her son. "Yeah, I'm a little tied up back here," Lucas added. Ben snapped his fingers and the chains fell to the floor. Lucas was finally able to freely move around, looking at his body like it was the first time he'd seen it. His gaze shifted over to Ben. There were so many questions going through his mind about what he just saw. Sadly, there was no time for questions. The portal looked like it wasn't going to stay open much longer and the roof wasn't doing a good job of holding back the creature. Lucas grabbed hands with his mother and they latched onto Ben who started pulling them into the portal. Before getting all the way through, Lucas felt something on his leg. He looked back to see that the beast had made it into the car and was grasping onto him. "Help! Please! Help!" Lucas screeched, his heart pounding. He was now looking the beast in the eyes, and for some reason, he couldn't look away. This was a fear that he had never felt before. "Watch out," Ben shouted, coming back. His hands created strange movements once again and he shot some sort of beam at the beast. It recoiled, allowing him to pull Lucas in, closing the portal and leaving the beast behind with the car. In a moment, the three of them appeared in a new location. Analyzing the setting, trees still surrounded the area, but it wasn't the same place as before. It seemed to be populated by actual people. Tall buildings stood before them, and the people were walking around and communicating. The trees served only as a border, not getting in the way of the main area. This must be the place. Lucas immediately fell to the ground. The other two ran over to him, checking his leg for any type of wound from the beast. They couldn't seem to find anything resembling a cut or mark. Then they saw his face. Lucas looked as if he couldn't breathe. "What's wrong?" Sheri asked, sitting him up. "Lucas, what's wrong?" His mouth was moving, but he couldn't say anything. He reached his arm up and pointed to the sky. Ben followed his finger up to see that it was directed at the sun, allowing Ben to understand the problem. "We have to get him out of here," he muttered, clicking a beeper. Two people with lab coats emerged from the first building, pushing a gurney. "Where are you taking him?" Sheri questioned. "The infirmary." "Why? What's the problem?" "It's the sun. He hasn't been properly equipped to survive the daylight." "Let me go with him. I'm his mother." "I'm sorry, Sheri. We can't let you come in while we are operating. Once we have determined the issue is resolved, you can see him," Ben told her, as the other two hoisted Lucas onto the gurney. They began to wheel him away not soon after. Everything was starting to go black for Lucas. He wasn't quite sure what they were saying to him anymore. Soon, he couldn't hear anything. He wondered if he was dead.