Ravenger

NOVEL LIKLEY BE EDITED, ADDED, CHANGED, or REMOVED Flashes of burning red images stimulated the sleeping teenager. In these flashes, were shapes, those of demonic proportions. They appeared humanoid enough, with various shapes. One fat, another broader, but none mattered except the last one he had dreamt of. This shape was more humanoid, closer to human than any other. Once it was shown, it quickly faded just as fast…and the teenager awoke. Joseph Dietz is a sixteen, nearly-seventeen-year old high schooler, currently awake within his urban home. He was not the sort to be one with a unique appearance. Everyone, even his own friends and family, thought he looked relatively average. Joseph sat up in his bed, the black colored blanket still over his legs. Upon his head was hair of the color brown, but his forehead was detached in sweat, along with his armpits. Due to him going to sleep the night before, he removed most of his clothing, leaving his red-colored boxers. Joseph breathed heavily, with small coughs in between each one. Soon, his coughing ceased and his breathing became steady. He shortly laid back down, embracing what he continued to think was the softest mattress in the world. Though, some sweat was now soaking through the bed sheet. No matter, it needed to be cleaned anyhow. It had been awhile since he had this dream, not since a month or so prior to this day. What he dreamt was recurring. As long as he remembered ever dreaming, it almost involved those red flashes and what he assumed were his personal demons per se. Joseph looked up at his white ceiling, seeing the odd patterns of whatever texture that was used. Funny enough, he was sure he saw those same shapes in those weird lines and bumps. Frankly, it didn’t really matter where he looked, he almost saw those familiar beings. Something important suddenly hit Joseph like a brick. He looked over to his end table, of course, a table made of wood. On top of this was a lamp, a notebook, and his alarm clock. He stared directly at the clock, to see the familiar bulky-sci-fi-looking font. It read, Date: Friday Jan 4th, 2019, Time: 7:20 AM. His school, Douglas High, starts at eight thirty. Joseph quickly stood off his bed and groaned. He was not entirely in the mood to go to school, but he calmed down once he realized it was a Friday. The teenager made his way to the bathroom. Luckily, one was built directly towards his bedroom, creating an easy-to-go situation. And yeah, there was still a door, obviously made for any privacy that was needed.  Joseph twisted the door knob and pushed the door open, to see his recently cleaned bathroom. The smell of Dawn soap hit him like a truck, but he didn’t mind. It had an extremely good smell, and it was possibly the best cleaning supply he and his family ever used; practically every room with a cleanable surface had some sort of Dawn product. Before he approached his shower, Joseph took a quick look at himself, using the bathroom mirror. His sight shortly looked into his own eyes. His pupil is the color brown or he assumes it is brown. Joseph is sure his eyes are actually a dark red, but perhaps that’s always been the light source nearby, messing with how he saw the color. Eventually, Joseph had already stepped into the shower and turned the valve, releasing water onto his head, which from there slid down his entire body. As the water became ever so hot, Joseph felt a shock of pain run through his body. Before he could even physically react to this, his vision fled with those nightmarish images. He had never had them awake before. Why now? As he soon saw the most humanoid one of them all, he felt pressure rise up in his throat, as well as a foul taste. Joseph fell to his knees and threw up onto the drain, seeing the puke a darker color. Most likely due to last night’s meal, Meatloaf. What worried Joseph more was the red mixed with the vomit…blood, he thought. Shortly after, he threw up once more after seeing the previous retch.  Ten minutes or so passed, Joseph now wearing a black long-sleeve shirt, blue jeans, and grey socks. With him was his school bag, one that was mostly blue, with some specs of orange stripes. He had this pack since he started high school, one that he was quite emotionally attached to. As soon as he reached the bottom step, his sight was drawn to the living room couch, where his mother, Jean Dietz, slept. She was comfortably sleeping on her right side, the blanket on her capturing her captivating body shape. For her age, at thirty-nine, she still resembled her younger figure. One that still catches the eyes of men. Of course, Joseph never saw his mom in that way. Sometimes he tends to be annoyed when his friend makes such inappropriate jokes regarding his mother. Joseph would only deny such facts about his mom, but that was always a lie. But still, Joseph couldn’t doubt what his mother had, but chose to ignore those thoughts, to prevent such imaginations. Shortly enough, he saw his younger cousin, Karen Smith. She was asleep as well, on the floor, between the television and Jean. Karen’s ten or so. Joseph couldn’t quite recall her age, since he never really cared to…care about her. Now he did, in fact, care for her; but most days, he’d rather be anywhere else. Karen was a late comer, more or so living with him and his mom for about three years. When her mom, Joseph’s aunt, passed away, Jean took her in as one as her own. I suppose since then, so much attention has come to her. Joseph had always had a negative look at his younger cousin. Obviously, Jean would not abandon her own son to care for her nephew. She'd do both because that was her job. Joseph looked at the television to see it was on, where he saw some sort of streaming device. He didn’t use them enough to actually know which one it was. But once he looked away, he got a glimpse of the name…Hulu. Joseph soon entered the kitchen, looking over at the white-colored fridge. He approached it and gripped the handle with his right hand, pulling it open. Once he did, the fridge lit up, revealing its contents. Since Joseph opens this nearly every day, he did not need to see where the thing he desired was at. He immediately reached his left hand for the familiar yellow-colored block, Cheese. Joseph moved the cheese block into his right hand, which was still gripping the fridge handle. While he stared into the fridge, looking for something else, his already  faulty grip on the cheese loosened. Before he could react, the cheese slammed onto the tile floor. Joseph immediately looked into the living room, to see if his mom or cousin was awake.  But there was no sign of them reacting to the sound. Joseph sighed and crouched down, picking up the cheese block. Nearly an hour later, Joseph stood in front of his school, choosing to wait a few minutes before going inside. Like tens of other students, he simply desired to chill outside before the day officially began. Even though he was only a Sophomore, he felt like he already knew the people around him. Not in the way as in Best Friends or even Colleagues, merely knew because most of those he ran into were people from his middle school, Winterhaven. Joseph had only really made one friend in his time in middle school. That was d**k Graves. Where the school staff would just refer to him as Richard. Everyone else, Joseph just ignored and tried his best not to insert himself into other people’s lives. He even thinks he’s not that good of a friend to his buddy, but d**k had said on multiple occasions: “Nah, you’re a good friend”. With Joseph, sure that he wasn't. His sight was soon drawn to a group of kids, people he definitely recognizes from Winterhaven. One noticed Joseph staring and waved to him, greeting the fellow student. This was Adam Colbie, someone who was incredibly likable, as well as a very smart student. He was the type of guy to always be kind and caring, even to those who annoyed him. A person of pure positiveness, as Joseph’s mom once said at a birthday party he was invited to once. Joseph quickly looked away from Adam, not even giving so much as a wave or nod. How the kind-hearted kid reacted to this he hadn’t noticed due to removing him entirely out of his sight. As he faced a new direction, in the distance was his friend, d**k. He wore a bright orange hoodie, one that Joseph saw every single school day since freshman year. He wore black jeans, brown shoes, and carried a black school bag. While Joseph had brown hair, d**k was ginger. His hair is scruffy and slightly curly. Joseph’s favorite insult to his friend came to his mind; Ron. d**k approached his friend, walking all smug as he had done a few times before. Before Joseph could say anything, d**k spoke up in his surprisingly low tone of voice… “Happy National Spaghetti Day!” d**k yelled. A few students walked by, staring at him; already annoyed with his usual antics.  “That’s a thing?” Joseph asked, rolling his eyes slightly. “Yeah, Spaghetti!” d**k, mimicking an old joke you’ll find along the interwebs. “Great, just what we need, more stupid holidays,” Joseph added, crossing his arms. “Yeah - oh, hey. How’d the morning go?” d**k asked, filled with concern and curiosity. Joseph quickly thought over what had happened today, as well as the fact he had told someone about his ‘Dreams’. “It was…actually way worse this morning. More than it has ever been,” Joseph explained, losing his joy he had only got a few seconds prior.  Dick looked at his friend, with ever so growing sadness. He was never very sure about the whole thing. His dreams, I mean. Ever since they were friends, Joseph had always told him about his experience. d**k couldn’t actually believe what he said, but whatever had happened, he wished that it would no longer hurt his friend in the way it did. “Ah, sorry man. I didn’t mean to…you know,” d**k began. “It’s okay. I’ll just ignore it for now. Not much I can do about it,” Joseph added, feeling pathetic. WILL CONTINUE WRITING