Swords of the Past

       The day was sunny and the wind gave small relief to the sun's constant rays. The birds chirped in the trees and when they flew through the air. I thought that everything was going well. Laying on the ground in the courtyard, looking up at the sky, I begin to point out funny shapes in my head.  "There you are Enzo." A voice behind me says with longing. "I've been looking bloody everywhere for you." Sitting up a little I turn to see my best friend walking up the hill and over to where I'm laying on the green grass, "Sorry Charlie, it's just fantastic outside. I can't remember the last time it was this warm in the middle of October."  Charlie sets his bag down and joins me in the soft grass. "Yes, I suppose that's true. You wanna walk down to Russo's to get some coffee?" In all of San Fransico Russo's is the best place to get coffee, a lot of people might prefer Star Bucks over Russo's but that's just absurd in my opinion. "Yeah, if I'm going to stay awake during Mr. Moores class then I'm definitely going to need coffee."  Being the first person up off the ground, I extend my hand and help Charlie up to his feet. He mumbles a quick 'thank you' and we both begin our journey to the lovely coffee shop a few blocks away. As we walked I started to bounce a little, there was something about today. It made me happy and I couldn't explain why. I just had this feeling that something good was going to happen.  "Hey, did we have anything for Advance Literature?" Charlie asks as he kicks a pebble laying on the sidewalk. It skids down the pavement until he kicks it again.  Thinking I couldn't remember if we had anything due, "No, I don't think so Charlie. You're thinking of next week. We have that term paper due." "Ah yes. The term paper on the great Julius Caesar. God, I hate that man." Charlie says his thick British accent lacing his words.  Walking inside I was greeted by the scent of vanilla and cinnamon. It wafted through the air and made my skin crawl with goosebumps. That smell has always made me feel at home. Charlie grabs my arm and begins to pull me over to the short line of people who were waiting for the woman behind the counter to take their orders. I didn't even need to look up at the menu, Charlie and I have been coming here for years. Ever since we stumbled in and the manager hid us from some bullies that were after Charlie.  The line begins to move and we're second in line. The older woman in front of us orders a black coffee to go and then pays for it before stepping aside. We move forward and Camille gives us her famous comforting smile. "Alright boys, will it be the usual or are you going to step out of your comfort zone and try something new?" "I don't know, Camille," Charlie says trying to use his boyish charm to gain her affection. "What do you think?"  Camille scoffs and then says as she punches it into the white register in front of her, "So it'll be your regular?" A saddened smile appears on his face and he looks down at his feet. He got rejected again. This wasn't the first time he'd been rejected by Camille. He's been trying to get a date for a good year, but before that he would flirt with her every day we would come in here. Charlie hands her the money and then gives him the receipt. We step to the side and wait for Kenny to make our drinks.  Doing my best to cheer up my friend, I wrap my arm around his shoulders, "Don't worry Charlie, you'll get her someday." "Here you go, one vanilla frappuccino,"- Kenny hands my drink and I instantly take a drink of the cold liquid,- "and one green tea with soy milk instead of regular."- He reaches over the counter and Charlie grabs the foreign liquid and happily takes a sip causing me to let out a disgusted groan. I've never liked green tea.  We take our drinks over to a table and sit down. Charlie sits there while I get out my laptop, checking my emails before I shut the lid and put it back in my bag. "Did you get it?" "No," I reply in a somewhat sad tone, "It hasn't shown up yet. I don't think I'm going to get one." I had sent in an article for the local newspaper on campus and I honestly don't think that they're going to publish it. "Oh, that's rubbish! You're one of the best writers I know!"  Now I don't think I'm the best writer but I must say that I'm a pretty good one because I always get As' on all my writing assignments. Plus I even helped out with my high school newspaper, everyone always complimented me on my writing skills. So I'm a little disappointed because I thought they'd like my submission.  I take a sip of my coffee and take in a deep breath through my nose, relaxing a little bit before I'd have to go to Mr. Moores class. The way he talks about history, I just can't stay awake. I don't know if it's his voice or what. It's just petty hard.  My watch starts to vibrate and I quickly shut off the timer. Charlie and I have twenty minutes to get back to campus or we'd be late for class. "Come on, Charlie, we better be heading back. Don't want Mr. Moore to have our head." "No, no, we don't." Charlie chuckles as we get up from our chairs and make our way to the exit. Stepping outside I'm greeted by the warm sun. I wanted to bathe in the sun but I know that I couldn't, we have responsibilities.  So I continued on the stony sidewalk, my shoes clicking down the sidewalk. Cars zoomed past us and made their way down the street. People walked past us, smiling and chatting as they did so. I don't know exactly what it was but I had this nagging pit in the bottom of my stomach. Like something was going to happen but I couldn't put my finger on it. "You, there!" Charlie and I both turned around to find the person the voice belonged to, an old man wearing dirty clothes and mud covered part of his face.  His teeth were rotten and he looked like he hadn't eaten in a while. His face looked sunken in, almost as if he was close to death. The smell that he gave off seemed like something had died on him. Maybe it had, he is a hobo.  He slowly walks over to me and taps me right in the chest, "You have a great destiny in front of you, my king. But beware, dark forces lurk all around. They work to deceive you and take you off your path." Before this man could say anything else, Charlie is grabbing my arm and pulling me away from the strange hobo. As I'm being pulled away the man begins to yell, "You're destiny has been foretold. It's been written in the stars! You cannot escape it!" When we arrived back to campus, I couldn't get the man's words out of my head. Charlie did his best at reassuring me but it failed. It gave me chills to think that maybe I had a destiny. Shaking my head I quickly dismiss the thought, I'm just a nobody. But when he called me king it made me feel something strange.  Pushing the experience completely out of my head I run to my locker and grab my literature book, before running to Mr. Moores room. When I get there, I look down at my watch and see that I only have a few minutes to spare. I take my seat next Chalie and wait for class to start.  The door to the classroom opens revealing Mr. Moore. He walks in and sits down at his desk, setting down his books and his coffee. Don't let Mr. Moores appearance fool you, he is a pompous know-it-all, who has no regards for any of his students.  He's horrible. He's honestly the worst teacher I've ever had in my history of getting an education.  "Alright everyone, turn to page one-hundred and thirty-two and read the short story. When you're done, mark the page and close the book." Mr. Moore tells us disappointedly, his tone sounded so melancholy and depressing.  Following the instruction, my fingers begin to open the book and flip through the pages. When I first opened it, I overshot it about eighty pages but who's counting. I get to the right place it and begin to read an old folktale of Arthurian legend. As I read, the words on the page begin to move and rearrange themselves.  ⓀⒺⒺⓅ ⓎⓄⓊⓇ ⒺⓎⒺⓈ ⓄⓅⒺⓃ Blinking a few times, I try to figure out what just happened. I thought maybe rubbing my eyes would fix my vision but it seems that it didn't work. And that terrified me, I even tried to squint away the madness I was seeing.  I slam my book shut causing everyone in the silent room to pick their heads up and stare at me, making me feel even more uncomfortable. Mr. Moore just watched me, his silence began to somewhat scare me. I know that sounds very immature but if you saw the way he was looking at me, you'd want to run and hide too. His eyes looked darker than usual and it brought the 'you're-going-to-be-dead-if-you-interrupt-again' look together.  Picking my book up off the desk, I slowly start to stand, drawing more attention to myself than I wanted. I quickly shove the book into my messenger bag before I hastily make my way towards the exit, hoping and praying that Mr. Moore wouldn't stop me on the way. Making it past the threshold made me feel a little bit better. As a teacher, he's not supposed to say anything to the student if they suddenly leave the lecture but are suppose to report it to that persons' advisor. Mr. Moore tends to tell you that you're on the way of becoming a disappointment and sends a lengthy email to your advisor. So as you can see everyone who takes his class tries to avoid that.  I wanted to try and make up a reason why he didn't come after me but I quickly dismissed it. The moving words held more a present matter in my head than my crazy teacher, Mr. Moore. What did those words mean? Why would I need to keep my eyes open? First, a crazy homeless man begins spewing messed up notions of my supposed destiny. Then this happens. What's next? Am I going to meet the love of my life in the food court? Even if I wanted to forget it, there wasn't any way that I  possibly could, it's like it's etched into my brain and not even a catchy song could free me from my mental prison. I just hoped that everything would work itself out because I want to get on with my normal life. Words rearranging themselves wasn't normal. It's not even close! Maybe I'm just going insane. That's it, I've just lost all of my marbles. Moving further down the hall, I try to keep my head from spinning. I take the stairs and find myself wandering the corridors. Taking different turns not even having a clue as to where I'm going, I just let my feet carry me. I honestly didn't know where I was going. After a few minutes of walking, I found myself downstairs in the lounge.  The lounge had foosball and games, comfy chairs and tables so we could relax or do our homework, a tv with a game system, and a bunch of different abstract artworks. The lounge always seemed to feel like a haven, a place I could go where I felt that I wasn't alone. It constantly had people in it. But now it was empty, there was no one in sight but the janitor who was cleaning out the trash cans.  Sitting down in the comfy red chairs I set my bag down and just try to relax, but the edgy feeling that was in the bottom of my stomach. I reach into my bag and pull out my headphones and plug them into my phone. Hitting shuffle, I lean my head back and begin to drift off, my eyes closing. My body began to relax and I started to feel a little bit better. I felt like I was getting some of the normalcy back in my life. Letting loose I start to bob my head to the music. A small tap on my shoulder causes me to fling my head straight and remove my headphones from my ears. But there was still the said prophecy and the words in my world literature book that sat at the back of my mind, haunting me.                      But I knew one thing; I was going to figure this out, even if it killed me.